He was born in Dunbar in East Lothian, the son of Grace Martin Brough and Rev Alexander Wright Bain.
[citation needed] Three main themes run through his published work-the functioning of the autonomic nerves, the inactivation of the sympathetic transmitter, and the assessment of antihistamine drugs.
This diagram is now known throughout the world for, slightly modified, it has appeared in all editions of The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics by Louis Goodman and Alfred Gilman.
[citation needed] After the war, Bain returned to experimental work, and devised a technique for the quantitative assessment in man of antihistamine agents.
"[5] The work of Bain and his department gave rise to the adrenergic-neurone blocking drugs which now play an important role in the control of hypertension.