John Beard (embryologist)

John Beard (11 November 1858 – 1924) was a Scottish embryologist, known for his controversial theory of the trophoblastic origin of cancer and his experimental treatments of cancer by means of pancreatic enzymes.

Beard attended Owens College, Manchester and the Royal College of Science, London, where he studied under T. H. Huxley. He received further education, specializing in embryology, at the Universities of Würzburg and Freiburg. Upon his return to the U.K. he became a naturalist working for the Scottish Fishery Board at the Marine Laboratory at Dunbar. He left his Fishery Board employment in 1890 to accept an appointment as assistant lecturer in embryology of vertebrates at the University of Edinburgh. Beard was soon afterwards also appointed assistant lecturer in comparative anatomy of vertebrates, and was assistant (then senior) lecturer in embryology and assistant lecturer in comparative anatomy of vertebrates from 1890 to 1920. In 1893 he became Lecturer in Embryology (i.e. senior lecturer at the highest pay scale) in succession to the late George Brook (1857–1893). Beard was also, for about twenty years or more, senior assistant to the professor of natural history, Prof. J. C. Ewart. Beard was the author of more than 100 scientific articles or monographs. A collection of his papers dealing with the enzyme treatment of cancer was published in 1911.