Career
He spent his entire career at Cambridge University. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1883 and later its vice-president Langley is known as one of the fathers of the chemical receptor theory, and as the origin of the concept of "receptive substance".
In 1901, he advanced research in neurotransmitters and chemical receptors, working with extracts from adrenal glands.
These extracts elicited responses in tissues that were similar to those induced by nerve stimulation.