Let's get an effect.

1949.

1 film reel (11 min.) : silent, black and white, 8 mm

Wellcome Trust.

In English.

Professor Sir William Paton, F. R. S., Prof. F. C. MacIntosh, F.R. S., Prof. J. L. Malcolm, Dr. B. D. Burns, F. R. S. and other members of staff of the former N.I.M.R. F-4 Laboratory, Mount Vernon Hospital, Hampstead.

The background and text relating to this title have kindly been supplied by E. M. Tansey; see First W. D. M. Paton Memorial Lecture "An F-4-vescent episode: Sir Henry Dale's laboratory 1919-1942", reproduced in British Journal of Pharmacology (1995) 115, 1339-1345.

In the mid-1960s the film was sent to New York to be copied and some scenes were deleted or otherwise corrupted. The existence of the film was mentioned to Tilli Tansey by Sir William Paton in the summer of 1987, and the original film and two copies were excavated from his Oxford attic. It was transferred from 8mm film onto videotape (and some effort was made to restore one missing caption) and shown at the Physiological Society Meeting at the NIMR, Mill HIl in November 1987.

Caption 1 Let's get an effect, a quotation from Dale - see Gaddum (1986 revision by MacIntosh), pp.186.

Caption 2 An ef-four-vescent episode, G. L. Brown is writing the caption.

Caption 3 Exposing..., behind Brown is a picture of Dale. MacIntosh was meticulous in verifying references. L. W. Collison (the head technician) is doing an assay of posterior pituitary extract on virgin guinea-pig uterus, a rather tedious assay for the International Biological Standard. The group in the coffee read from left to right: Lywood, Blakemore, tea-lady, Pearson, Pergande, secretary, trainee, Vianna Dias, Gray, Burns and Malcolm.

Caption 4 The physiology of the nerve-ending, Burns was very struck by the likeness of a Virginia creeper tendril growing up the wall of the NIMR to a motor nerve ending.

Caption 5 Is indeed to Brown's experimental technique, references are to the classical Hampstead experiments on chemical transmission. The arterial ligature allows blood (and its cholinesterase) to drain out of the muscle before the injection.

Caption 6 And MacIntosh's exquisitely accurate experiments, the most sensitive and classical test for ACh was the esserinized leech muscle. The table-tapping was to overcome the "striction" of the light leaver on the smoked drum. MacIntosh was outstandingly rigorous in control experiments.

Caption 7 Not to mention Collison's artistry, collision putting on a pair of double spectacles and "preparing" a kynograph trace for publication, probably a trace of the effect of decamethonium on nerve-evoked tibialis twitch in a cat under chloralose. The error was deliberately drawn in and collision was heard during the filming, "What, you want me to draw it in and then black it out? Sir Henry would never...".

Caption 8 F4's superb equipment, a Dale-Schuster pump is shown. Mouse for fun,

Caption 9 Plentiful supply of mature experimental animals, use of tadpoles is not recalled, although Xenopus and frog were used.

Caption 10 And papers painstakingly pruned. A few verbal alterations, J.A.B. Gray in action. There was a long-standing tradition in the laboratory of very thorough editing of papers and communciations before submisssion to the Journal or to the Society. Also, around 1949 the Physiological Society temporarily restricted communications to 150 words.

Caption 11 Little wonder that F4 is the Mecca of the physiological world, the laboratory had a stream of foreign visitors, particularly after the Second World War, re-establishing pre-war contacts and creating new ones. Vianna Dias wearing a fez under protest, taking notes and smudging a smoked drum, was only a modest caricature. One visitor remarked "You've got some swell apparatus; how are you off for projects?"

Caption 12 But refinements of technique, MacIntosh had recently been working with N. Emmelin on ACh output from plasma-perfused ganglia. Here, with Pearson's help, he parodies a ganglion perfusion experiment - the horse's skull "happened to be around". In the past MacInstosh had workd on ACh from nerve tracts in the spinal cord of the horse.

Caption 13 And elaboration of appartus, at the bottom of the pile of the first piece of electrical equipment acquired by the laboratory, an Avometer bought by J.H. Gaddum during Dale's directorship. The camera pans up over more recently acquired equipment, much of it "canabalised" from RAF and other war surplus sources.

Caption 14 And assistants, Brown's experiment is progressively masked by, in order, Pearson, Gray, MacIntosh, Perry, Spratt, Malcolmn Collison and the back of Paton's head.

Caption 15 Has enabled "one of us", a phrase frequently used in Dale's papers, and a recent paper appeared with the footnote "the publication of this paper has been delayed by the death of one of us". The pile of sandwiches; Brown seemed unable to put on weight however much he ate; see also Capacity.

Caption 16 To plan the experiment to end all experiments giving careful consideration to membrane resistance, Paton is shown exploding a condom. They had been used as a source of thin rubber sheet for respiratory valves during the wartime diving and submarine work. He had recently purchased some in King's Cross Road; after demonstrating to him their strength, the shopman asked if he wanted plain or teat-ended. The reply "it doesn't really matter - I always cut the ends off" has been the basis of a number of stories.

Caption 17 Capacity, Brown has nearly finished the pile of sandwiches, a pun intended, but - the kitten refused to cooperate at the right moment,

Caption 18 Space constant, space was at a premium in f4, despite the use of an open lab, also illustrates Brown's DIY preference.

Caption 19 Time constant, the clock moving towards opening-time. The local pub "The Hollybush".

Caption 20 And statistical error, Perry with calculating machine.

Caption 21 And with careful reference to the literature, the books refer to major scientific debates (Eccles; Nachmansohn; and Lorente de No8, who claimed that ACh could not be detected from plasma-perfused ganglia), to some recent poorly-controlled neuromuscular work (MacDowall) and to W. Burridge of Rangoon whose "law" appeared to be unfalsifiable, gave rise to a ditty by Dale, with the refrain "Burridge's Law", Burridge's Law. There is nothing that doesn't fit Burridge's Law".

Caption 22 He has brought his work to its climacteric, laboratory scene along the long window bench. On the left of the door is the water centrifuge and balance above which Collison put a notice "Near enough is not good enough". The door led into a side-room, previously housing a bicycle ergoemter, now equipped for electrophysiological work. Brown enters, takes off his gloves, answers a phone call (he was very busy with outside work at this time), picks up a baton and "conducts" the experiment. Collison places a kitten in an MSE centrifuge, apparently processes it in time to brown's conducting, and the experiment passes it down the line - there are gas and water spirometers, an oscilliscope, cannibalised RAF equipement and an old calculating machine.

Caption 23 And leaves us for "another place" Brown being carried away like an exhausted gas cylinder, on his chest a picture of Dale and tied around his feet a label "empty. To university College, C.O.D." Then Collison walking through the empty lab, shaking his head, and muttering a favourite remark of his "Sir Henry would never have done it like that".