Langley, John Newport (1852–1925)

English physiologist who investigated the structure and function of the autonomic nervous system, the involuntary part of the nervous system, that controls the striated and cardiac muscles and the organs of the gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, excretory, and endocrine systems. He went on to divide up the autonomic nervous system into the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches, with specific functions being apportioned to each.

Langley did a great deal of research on the structure and function of sympathetic nerve fibres and ganglia. Ganglia are clusters of the cell bodies of sensory neurons in the peripheral nervous system which lie just outside the spinal cord. Langley blocked nervous impulses by applying various chemicals, such as nicotine, to ganglia. The cell bodies of motor neurons in the autonomic nervous system also lie in these ganglia. His findings were published in The Autonomic Nervous System 1921.

Langley was born in Newbury and educated at St Johns College, Cambridge. He remained in the physiology department at Cambridge and was elected professor of physiology in 1903.