James Lorrain Smith

James Lorrain Smith FRS FRSE FRCPE (21 August 1862 – 18 April 1931) was a Scottish pathologist known for his works in human physiology, especially his research on respiration in collaboration with John Scott Haldane.

[1] He was born in the manse at Half Morton in rural Dumfriesshire the fourth son of Rev Walter Smith who was a Free Church of Scotland minister in the parish.

He became a Demonstrator under Professor Charles Smart Roy who recommended that he follow his studies at the universities of Strasbourg under Friedrich Daniel von Recklinghausen.

He spent some time at Copenhagen where he studied techniques for analysing gases in blood in Christian Bohr's laboratory before moving to teach at the Queen's College, Belfast, becoming a professor in 1901.

[5][6] During the First World War he helped to introduce the antiseptic "Eusol" (Edinburgh University Solution) and suggested the idea of using charcoal in gas masks.