Walter Lee Gaines

American dairy scientist

Walter Lee Gaines (17 March 1881 – 20 November 1950) was a pioneer of dairy science and a professor of milk production at the University of Illinois. He studied factors affecting hormonal injections and their induction of milk production. In 1915 he used a pituitary gland extract from goats to demonstrate the effect, and it was later identified that the hormone was oxytocin. He noted that anaesthetic prevented this hormone from being effective and Gaines was among the first to suggest the idea of a neuroendocrine reflex involving the production of the substance in response to suckling.^[1] He was also thus a pioneer of neuroendocrinology.^[2]

Gaines was born in Crete, Illinois and went to the University of Illinois, receiving a BS (1908) and an MS (1910) before working towards and obtaining his PhD at the University of Chicago on the physiology of lactation. His 1915 thesis work on the induction of milk flow by hormones through injections and the observation that this induction is prevented by anaesthesia made him suggest a connection between neural stimulation of the endocrine system.^[3] He became a professor of milk production in 1919 and was involved in dairy research including studies on the effect of hormone, milk constitution and devised an approach to standardization of the energy content in milk.^[4]^[5]

References

^ Dreifuss, Jean Jacques (1981). "WL Gaines, précurseur du concept de réflexe neuroendocrine". Gesnerus (in French). 38 (3–4): 331–338. doi:10.1163/22977953-0380304004.
^ Folley, S. J. (1970). "The Milk-Ejection Reflex: A Neuroendocrine Theme in Biology, Myth and Art". Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 13 (4): 476–490. doi:10.1353/pbm.1970.0041. ISSN 1529-8795. PMID 4919792. S2CID 26464979.
^ Gaines, W.L. (1915). "A contribution to the physiology of lactation". J. Physiol. 38: 285–312.
^ Gaines, W. L. (1928). "An Efficiency Formula for Dairy Cows". Science. 67 (1735): 353–354. Bibcode:1928Sci....67..353G. doi:10.1126/science.67.1735.353. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17735137.
^ Gaines, W. L. (1927). "The Energy Basis of Measuring Milk Yields". Journal of Animal Science. 1927 (1): 33–36. doi:10.2527/jas1927.1927133x (inactive 2024-09-19). ISSN 0021-8812.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of September 2024 (link)

External links

University of Illinois digital reprints
A contribution to the physiology of lactation (1915 dissertation)
An analysis of milking shorthorn milk records (1943)
The energy basis of measuring milk yield in dairy cows (1928)
Persistency of lactation in dairy cows : a preliminary study of certain Guernsey and Holstein records (1927)
The sunflower as a silage crop : composition and yield at different stages of maturity (1925)
Rate of milk secretion as affected by advance in lactation and gestation : correction of yield, within a lactation period, for length of record and for pregnancy (1926)
Relation between percentage fat content and yield of milk : correction of milk yield for fat content (1923)