Wilhelm Siegmund Feldberg, C. B. E. 19 November 1900—23 October 1993

Wilhelm Siegmund Feldberg, one of the greatest neuropharmacologists of the 20th century, was born in Hamburg on 19 November 1900. During a working life of 65 years, he published over 350 papers. His early work in Berlin on the pharmacology of histamine and acetylcholine was followed in the 1930s by his fundamental work with Dale, which finally established the chemical nature of synaptic transmission in the peripheral nervous system. In later years he turned to the central nervous system, introducing a new and widely adopted experimental approach to elucidate the site and mode of action of drugs in the brain.