Review of Bound by Muscle

[Alice Glover]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Bound by Muscle" by Andrew Brown.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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Otto Meyerhof and Archibald Vivian Hill shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1922, but the prize was actually awarded the following year, in 1923. Andrew Brown's Bound by Muscle is a comprehensive dual biography of these two extraordinary individuals. It tells the stories of their lives and the eventful times they lived in, which included two world wars and significant technological advancements, such as the development of radar and the creation of the first atomic bomb.

Their mothers ensured that their bright sons received the best education. An upper-class German family raised Otto as a non-practicing Jew. A.V. Hill was English. They both married well. Otto married Hedwig Schallenberg, while A.V. married Margaret Keynes. I was disappointed that there were not more chapters detailing their personal lives, as they were visually appealing couples. A.V.'s brother-in-law was the economist John Maynard Keynes. Their children were successful, but Maurice—A.V. and Margaret's youngest son, who was a drinker and feared losing his intellectual abilities—committed suicide, despite being a successful oceanographer with a beautiful wife and children.

The first part of the book takes the reader through Hill’s productive college days at Trinity College, Cambridge—the Cavendish lab, where he spent most of his time running experiments on frog and rabbit muscles. Today, we recognize his first paper as the first kinetic description of drug-receptor interaction. Known today as the Hill-Langmuir equation, it memorializes Hill as one of the founding fathers of the receptor theory, the discovery from which quantitative pharmacology was born.

Otto Meyerhof earned a doctorate in medicine from Heidelberg and had access to a better-equipped laboratory. He also worked with muscles. He demonstrated how muscles consume oxygen and convert carbohydrates into energy, as well as how they metabolize lactic acid. Due to their shared interests, he visited Hill at Cambridge, and they became lifelong friends.

World War I interrupted Hill’s work, and for five years, A.V. was away helping Britain’s war effort against Germany. Among other projects, he improved the accuracy of artillery shells by rifling their barrels, achieving excellent results. Due to a childhood illness, Otto was exempt from active military service, allowing him to continue his experiments in the lab. Hill returned to the lab soon after the war, and the shared Nobel Prize was swiftly forthcoming.

Otto was the intellectual of the two. He read voraciously, especially the works of Goethe, and wrote poetry. Polly Hill discloses that Lorna Doone was the sole book her accomplished father, A.V. Hill, ever read.

During World War II, Otto, unwilling to leave his well-equipped lab, waits almost too late and then makes a desperate attempt to evacuate his family from Germany. As Hitler's army breaks through Allied lines, A.V. Hill’s humanitarian efforts add to the tension as he helps to rescue over 2,000 European intellectuals, including his friend Meyerhof, from being trapped behind Nazi lines.

The book is a meticulously researched tribute to both men. I’m not science-minded, so I didn’t always understand the lab experiments. In a letter, A.V. Hill states that J.S. Haldane sent him an article on metabolism after World War I, but he was unable to understand it because he hadn't been in the lab for a long time. For some reason, this information made me feel better. Still, I found the book to be very dense at times, and I wished the author, a retired doctor, had made it clearer how the experiments related to human health or performance—something that must have been obvious to him. I was intrigued to discover that a fatigued muscle releases lactic acid, a process similar to that of soured milk. The information may explain the reason for the pungent odor of sweaty clothing; however, this is solely my personal opinion. It is not in the book.

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars. It was a well-written biography, and I did not believe that I could deduct a star due to my inability to comprehend all of the experiments. People interested in science, biographies of famous people, and a behind-the-scenes look at the two world wars will all find this book very intriguing. They will feel as though they are experiencing the pogroms in Germany and the effects of the Blitz in Great Britain through the characters. The appearances of famous historical personages, such as Churchill and Einstein, added to the interest, and there were many others. A young Stephen Hawking paid a visit to Hurstbourne, the Hills' residence in Highgate, while Sigmund Freud required rescue from the Nazis. It was a fascinating time and an intriguing and educational read.

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Bound by Muscle
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[Neto Onuoha]

“Bound by Muscle" by Andrew Brown is a book about two Physiology or medicine Nobel prize winner. This book is a comprehensive biography of the two individuals taking you through their birth, childhood, adulthood and everything you want to know about them. Definitely a good read for lover of history and medicine.

[Charles Benson]

A fascinating look at how science and humanity collide under pressure, Bound by Muscle seems to thrive in its portrayal of Meyerhof and Hill as both brilliant minds and products of turbulent eras. I’m especially struck by the missed opportunity to explore their private lives more intimately—Brown hints at the complexity behind their polished public images, but I wish he'd lingered longer in those personal shadows.