George Oliver, Adrenaline Junky Physician

If you don't have test animals, you always have family...

"One of the most significant discoveries began with some personal observations by George Oliver, an English physician. Oliver had a penchant for inventing simple instruments and testing them on himself and his family members. He tried to invent an instrument for measuring the diameter of an artery under the skin. To test the sensitivity of his new device, he administered extracts from various animal glands to his young son and recorded changes in his arteries. To his surprise, injecting adrenal gland extract caused a large artery from which he was recording to narrow dramatically, raising his blood pressure." from Stanley Finger's Minds Behind the Brain