Wilhelm Feldberg
Encyclopedia
Wilhelm Siegmund Feldberg CBE FRS (19 November 1900 – 23 October 1993) was a German-British-Jewish physiologist and biologist
.
to a wealthy middle class Jewish family. He studied medicine
at Heidelberg
, Munich
and Berlin, graduating in 1925. In the same year he moved with his new wife to England and studied first under John Newport Langley
at Cambridge and then Henry Dale at Hampstead. In 1927 he returned to the Physiological Institute in Berlin but he was dismissed in 1933 during the Nazi purge of Jewish scientists. With the aid of Archibald Hill
's Academic Assistance Council, Feldberg was relocated to Britain's National Institute for Medical Research
in 1934-36. Here, he worked with Henry Hallett Dale
, providing a significant impetus for Dale's Nobel Prize
winning research into chemical neurotransmission
. Feldberg was subsequently offered a place in Australia
, at the behest of Charles Kellaway
, director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
. He spent two years (1936–38) in Melbourne
, joining Kellaway's snake venom
research programme. This work developed into a study of tissue responses to direct and indirect insult, focusing particularly on the liberation of histamine
and other endogenous mediators. A finding of lasting pharmacological interest from these studies was the identification and partial isolation of the slow-reacting substance of anaphylaxis. Although Feldberg had earned a fellowship supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council
, in 1938 he was offered a readership in physiology at Cambridge University. He returned to England to take up this post, remaining there throughout World War II
until 1949. Feldberg's subsequent appointments include: Head of Physiology and Pharmacology Division, National Institute for Medical Research, London, 1949-65 (Honorary Head of Division, 1965–66); Head, Laboratory of Neuropharmacology, National Institute for Medical Research, 1966-74. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1947 and made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1963.
Wilhelm Feldberg assisted many research workers who came to England
as a part of their Commonwealth Medical Fellowship and Wellcome Research Fellowship. Under this Fellowships, Professor PN Saxena
and Prof. KP Gupta of the Department of Pharmacology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College
, Aligarh Muslim University
, during 1970s got many papers published together with Wilhelm Feldberg while their vocation at National Institute for Medical Research
, Mill Hill
.
. An investigation by the Medical Research Council
found that some breaches of regulations had occurred. While these may not have been Feldberg's fault, he was deemed responsible and his Home Office Project Licence was revoked. One of the animal rights activists involved, Melody MacDonald
, detailed her claims in her 1994 book Caught in the Act: The Feldberg Investigation (ISBN 1-897766-05-X).
Feldberg became infamous, as MacDonald puts it, for his severe cruelty during animal research experiments. In the year of 1990, an investigation by the animal rights
group Advocates for Animals
revealed experiments in which rabbits were regularly burned and operated on without adequate anaesthesia, or even at all, and sometimes even without being covered by a licence.
These revelations came when Feldberg was 89 years old. These experiments took place at the National Institute for Medical Research laboratories, Mill Hill, in London, which relate to the functions and decisions of the Home Department. These experiments took place between 1989 and 1990.
Along with Feldberg' colleague Mr. Stern, the Medical Research Council
Inquiry found that he caused both unnecessary suffering to animals.
MacDonald reports that Feldberg experimented by pouring various chemicals into the brains of cats while alive and fully conscious. However, as MacDonald and the inquiry found, it was his experiments on rabbits that brought about his downfall and subsequent sacking in 1990. This was just four months after he was awarded the Wellcome Gold Medal in Pharmacology by the British Pharmacological Society
.
On May 26, 1994 the book Caught in the Act
by Melody MacDonald
exposed his alleged malpractice to the world.
Dr. Vernon Coleman
writes that "Just before Christmas 1989 two undercover operators finally persuaded Feldberg to allow them to take video and still photographs of him at work. Flattered by the attention he was getting (one of the investigators, Melody MacDonald
, was a former fashion model (she published her investigation in the above mentioned book)) Feldberg agreed." Vernon goes on to state that "As a result of film which the investigators took just after Feldberg's eightyninth birthday, the Medical Research Council held an inquiry. The published report of the inquiry shows that according to the Medical Research Council Feldberg failed to ensure that four of the rabbits he used were sufficiently anaesthetized during experiments performed at the National Institute for Medical Research, in Mill Hill, London. The Medical Research Council's report describes the benefit likely to accrue from Feldberg's work as 'negligible' and admitted that 'applied to the methodology the word "crude" is not inappropriate'. They conclude that 'a number of animals perished for no discernible beneficial reason' and criticized the British Home Secretary for the fact that he 'failed to weigh adequately the likely benefit of the research against the likely adverse effects on the animals involved'. In some ways Feldberg was probably unlucky. I very much doubt if he was the only scientist in Britain who was failing to anaesthetize laboratory animals properly. He certainly wasn't the only scientist doing research work of negligible value. It's quite clear from this case history that it is a lie to say that animals which are experimented on are invariably and adequately anaesthetized. The truth is that most animals have no anaesthetic at all; and even when an anaesthetic is used the chances are high that it will be inadequate."
Biologist
A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
.
Biography
Feldberg was born in HamburgHamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
to a wealthy middle class Jewish family. He studied medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
at Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
and Berlin, graduating in 1925. In the same year he moved with his new wife to England and studied first under John Newport Langley
John Newport Langley
John Newport Langley was a British physiologist. He spent his entire career at Cambridge University. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1883 and later its vice-president....
at Cambridge and then Henry Dale at Hampstead. In 1927 he returned to the Physiological Institute in Berlin but he was dismissed in 1933 during the Nazi purge of Jewish scientists. With the aid of Archibald Hill
Archibald Hill
Archibald Vivian Hill CH OBE FRS was an English physiologist, one of the founders of the diverse disciplines of biophysics and operations research...
's Academic Assistance Council, Feldberg was relocated to Britain's National Institute for Medical Research
National Institute for Medical Research
The National Institute for Medical Research, commonly abbreviated to NIMR, is a medical research facility situated in Mill Hill, on the outskirts of London, England. It is mainly funded by the Medical Research Council, or MRC, and is its largest establishment and the only one designated as an...
in 1934-36. Here, he worked with Henry Hallett Dale
Henry Hallett Dale
Sir Henry Hallett Dale, OM, GBE, PRS was an English pharmacologist and physiologist. For his study of acetylcholine as agent in the chemical transmission of nerve impulses he shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Otto Loewi.-Biography:Henry Hallett Dale was born in Islington,...
, providing a significant impetus for Dale's Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winning research into chemical neurotransmission
Neurotransmission
Neurotransmission , also called synaptic transmission, is the process by which signaling molecules called neurotransmitters are released by a neuron , and bind to and activate the receptors of another neuron...
. Feldberg was subsequently offered a place in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, at the behest of Charles Kellaway
Charles Kellaway
Charles Halliley Kellaway, MB, BS, MD, MS, MC, FRS, was an Australian medical researcher and science administrator.-Early years and education:...
, director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research is Australia's oldest medical research institute.In 2011, the institute is home to more than 650 researchers who are working to understand, prevent and treat diseases including blood, breast and ovarian cancers; inflammatory diseases such as...
. He spent two years (1936–38) in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, joining Kellaway's snake venom
Snake venom
Snake venom is highly modified saliva that is produced by special glands of certain species of snakes. The glands which secrete the zootoxin are a modification of the parotid salivary gland of other vertebrates, and are usually situated on each side of the head below and behind the eye,...
research programme. This work developed into a study of tissue responses to direct and indirect insult, focusing particularly on the liberation of histamine
Histamine
Histamine is an organic nitrogen compound involved in local immune responses as well as regulating physiological function in the gut and acting as a neurotransmitter. Histamine triggers the inflammatory response. As part of an immune response to foreign pathogens, histamine is produced by...
and other endogenous mediators. A finding of lasting pharmacological interest from these studies was the identification and partial isolation of the slow-reacting substance of anaphylaxis. Although Feldberg had earned a fellowship supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council
National Health and Medical Research Council
The National Health and Medical Research Council is Australia's peak funding body for medical research, with a budget of roughly 700 million dollars a year...
, in 1938 he was offered a readership in physiology at Cambridge University. He returned to England to take up this post, remaining there throughout World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
until 1949. Feldberg's subsequent appointments include: Head of Physiology and Pharmacology Division, National Institute for Medical Research, London, 1949-65 (Honorary Head of Division, 1965–66); Head, Laboratory of Neuropharmacology, National Institute for Medical Research, 1966-74. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1947 and made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1963.
Wilhelm Feldberg assisted many research workers who came to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
as a part of their Commonwealth Medical Fellowship and Wellcome Research Fellowship. Under this Fellowships, Professor PN Saxena
PN Saxena
Prem Narain Saxena was the Founder Professor and Chairman Department of Pharmacology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, India. Being a distinguished pharmacologist of the country, he made several notable contributions in traditional medicine and Neuropharmacology...
and Prof. KP Gupta of the Department of Pharmacology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College
Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College
Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College is a medical college located in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India.The college is affiliated under the with Aligarh Muslim University.-History:...
, Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh Muslim University
Aligarh Muslim University ,is a residential academic university, established in 1875 by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan as Mohammedan Angelo-Oriental College and later granted the status of Central University by an Act of the Indian Parliament in 1920...
, during 1970s got many papers published together with Wilhelm Feldberg while their vocation at National Institute for Medical Research
National Institute for Medical Research
The National Institute for Medical Research, commonly abbreviated to NIMR, is a medical research facility situated in Mill Hill, on the outskirts of London, England. It is mainly funded by the Medical Research Council, or MRC, and is its largest establishment and the only one designated as an...
, Mill Hill
Mill Hill
Mill Hill is a place in the London Borough of Barnet. It is a suburb situated 9 miles north west of Charing Cross. Mill Hill was in the historic county of Middlesex until it was absorbed by London...
.
Controversy
Feldberg's career was ended in 1990 when two animal rights activists gained access to his lab on the pretence of writing a biography and filming an educational video. Their claims were printed in The IndependentThe Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
. An investigation by the Medical Research Council
Medical Research Council (UK)
The Medical Research Council is a publicly-funded agency responsible for co-ordinating and funding medical research in the United Kingdom. It is one of seven Research Councils in the UK and is answerable to, although politically independent from, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
found that some breaches of regulations had occurred. While these may not have been Feldberg's fault, he was deemed responsible and his Home Office Project Licence was revoked. One of the animal rights activists involved, Melody MacDonald
Melody MacDonald
Melody MacDonald is a British animal rights activist, author and lobbyist. She is the director of the Animal Cruelty Investigation Group.MacDonald is the author of Caught in the Act: The Feldberg Investigation , which gave her account of gaining access to the laboratory of Professor Wilhelm...
, detailed her claims in her 1994 book Caught in the Act: The Feldberg Investigation (ISBN 1-897766-05-X).
Feldberg became infamous, as MacDonald puts it, for his severe cruelty during animal research experiments. In the year of 1990, an investigation by the animal rights
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
group Advocates for Animals
Advocates for Animals
OneKind is a campaigning animal welfare charity based in Edinburgh and operating worldwide. The organisation works through high-profile public campaigns, political lobbying, investigations, formal research and public education....
revealed experiments in which rabbits were regularly burned and operated on without adequate anaesthesia, or even at all, and sometimes even without being covered by a licence.
These revelations came when Feldberg was 89 years old. These experiments took place at the National Institute for Medical Research laboratories, Mill Hill, in London, which relate to the functions and decisions of the Home Department. These experiments took place between 1989 and 1990.
Along with Feldberg' colleague Mr. Stern, the Medical Research Council
Medical Research Council (UK)
The Medical Research Council is a publicly-funded agency responsible for co-ordinating and funding medical research in the United Kingdom. It is one of seven Research Councils in the UK and is answerable to, although politically independent from, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
Inquiry found that he caused both unnecessary suffering to animals.
MacDonald reports that Feldberg experimented by pouring various chemicals into the brains of cats while alive and fully conscious. However, as MacDonald and the inquiry found, it was his experiments on rabbits that brought about his downfall and subsequent sacking in 1990. This was just four months after he was awarded the Wellcome Gold Medal in Pharmacology by the British Pharmacological Society
British Pharmacological Society
The British Pharmacological Society is the professional association for pharmacologists in the UK.The society was formed when a group of pharmacologists met in Oxford, UK in 1931. The learned society aims to further education within Pharmacology and also organizes meetings of the world's most...
.
On May 26, 1994 the book Caught in the Act
Caught in the Act
- Music :*Caught in the Act , a Dutch boy band*Caught in the Act , 1983, and the title song*Caught in the Act , 1975*Caught in the Act , 1975*Caught in the Act , 1984...
by Melody MacDonald
Melody MacDonald
Melody MacDonald is a British animal rights activist, author and lobbyist. She is the director of the Animal Cruelty Investigation Group.MacDonald is the author of Caught in the Act: The Feldberg Investigation , which gave her account of gaining access to the laboratory of Professor Wilhelm...
exposed his alleged malpractice to the world.
Dr. Vernon Coleman
Vernon Coleman
Vernon Coleman is a former general practitioner, and the author of over 100 books, including non-fiction works about human health, politics, cricket, and animal issues, and a range of novels. Son of an electrical engineer, he grew up an only child, in Walsall, West Midlands, England, where he...
writes that "Just before Christmas 1989 two undercover operators finally persuaded Feldberg to allow them to take video and still photographs of him at work. Flattered by the attention he was getting (one of the investigators, Melody MacDonald
Melody MacDonald
Melody MacDonald is a British animal rights activist, author and lobbyist. She is the director of the Animal Cruelty Investigation Group.MacDonald is the author of Caught in the Act: The Feldberg Investigation , which gave her account of gaining access to the laboratory of Professor Wilhelm...
, was a former fashion model (she published her investigation in the above mentioned book)) Feldberg agreed." Vernon goes on to state that "As a result of film which the investigators took just after Feldberg's eightyninth birthday, the Medical Research Council held an inquiry. The published report of the inquiry shows that according to the Medical Research Council Feldberg failed to ensure that four of the rabbits he used were sufficiently anaesthetized during experiments performed at the National Institute for Medical Research, in Mill Hill, London. The Medical Research Council's report describes the benefit likely to accrue from Feldberg's work as 'negligible' and admitted that 'applied to the methodology the word "crude" is not inappropriate'. They conclude that 'a number of animals perished for no discernible beneficial reason' and criticized the British Home Secretary for the fact that he 'failed to weigh adequately the likely benefit of the research against the likely adverse effects on the animals involved'. In some ways Feldberg was probably unlucky. I very much doubt if he was the only scientist in Britain who was failing to anaesthetize laboratory animals properly. He certainly wasn't the only scientist doing research work of negligible value. It's quite clear from this case history that it is a lie to say that animals which are experimented on are invariably and adequately anaesthetized. The truth is that most animals have no anaesthetic at all; and even when an anaesthetic is used the chances are high that it will be inadequate."
External links
- Autobiobraphy - Fifty Years On: Looking back on some Developments in Neurohumoral Physiology, Feldberg, Wilhelm; Liverpool University Press, 1982, pl
- 'The Life of Professor Feldberg' (also known as "Why Animal Experiments Must Stop") by Dr. Vernon ColemanVernon ColemanVernon Coleman is a former general practitioner, and the author of over 100 books, including non-fiction works about human health, politics, cricket, and animal issues, and a range of novels. Son of an electrical engineer, he grew up an only child, in Walsall, West Midlands, England, where he...
. - The Lies They Tell: Feldberg by the ALF
- Home Department: Animal Experiments questions and answers by the Home Office on Feldberg.
- Feldberg by Vivisection Absurd
- Professor Feldberg by the Animal Cruelty Investigation Group