Lancelot Hogben

Lore & Background

Hogben was born and raised in Southsea near Portsmouth, Hampshire. He studied physiology at Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated with a BA in 1915. A socialist and pacifist, he joined the Quakers, worked with the Red Cross in France, and was imprisoned as a conscientious objector in 1916. His health collapsed and he was released in 1917.

In 1923, Hogben co-founded the Society for Experimental Biology and its journal. He moved to the University of Cape Town in 1927, where he studied the Xenopus frog. He serendipitously discovered that female Xenopus frogs ovulated when injected with pituitary extract, leading to a human pregnancy test. The test became the major international pregnancy test for about fifteen years, from the mid-1930s through the 1940s. However, two South African researchers, Hillel Shapiro and Harry Zwarenstein, disputed Hogben's claim to have discovered the test, noting that their own successful use of Xenopus in pregnancy tests was published in 1933.

Later in his career, Hogben wrote popular science books, including Mathematics for the Million (1936) and Science for the Citizen (1938). He also created an international language, Interglossa. He served as the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana in 1963, resigning in 1965.

Reader's Guide

Lancelot Hogben's significance lies in his contributions across zoology, medicine, and public education. His development of the Xenopus laevis pregnancy test provided a faster, reusable alternative to earlier tests that killed mice or rabbits, and it was widely used for about fifteen years. However, the discovery is disputed; Shapiro and Zwarenstein published earlier successful tests and argued that Hogben retrospectively claimed credit. Hogben also played a key role in attacking the eugenics movement, emphasizing the interdependence of nature and nurture against the statistical partitioning used by eugenicists like R.A. Fisher. His popular science books, especially Mathematics for the Million, reached a broad audience and were praised by figures such as H.G. Wells and Albert Einstein. His legacy includes both practical medical advances and a commitment to making science accessible, though his claims to the pregnancy test remain contested.

Did You Know?

• Hogben was imprisoned in Wormwood Scrubs as a conscientious objector in 1916.
• He co-founded the Society for Experimental Biology in 1923.
• The Xenopus pregnancy test took hours and often harmed or killed the frogs, which were not typically reused.
• His book Mathematics for the Million was praised by H.G. Wells, Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, and Julian Huxley.