个人简介

人物生平

英文介绍

个人简介

乔治·理查兹·迈诺特　George Richards Minot (1885年12月2日—1950年2月25日)

人物生平

美国医生。1885年12月2日生于马萨诸塞州波士顿；1950年2月25日卒于马萨诸塞州布鲁克林。迈诺特是哈佛大学的学生和研究生，1912年取得医学学位。一度在约翰斯·霍普金斯大学工作，后于1915年又回到波士顿。象他父亲、叔叔和祖父一样在马萨诸塞州总医院和彼得·本特·布里格姆医院工作。 迈诺特对血液病特别是恶性贫血有兴趣。患此疾病时红血球数目进行性下降，常能危及生命。早在二十年代初期惠普尔曾报道过食用食物中的肝脏可以显著提高贫血病人红细胞数量的许多试验（尽管未涉及到恶性贫血）。这些报道对迈诺特有很大启发。 迈诺特已确定恶性贫血是由于缺乏维生素引起的营养缺乏病，因为这种病常伴有胃液中缺少盐酸。由于消化功能减退，导致某种维生素的吸收量低于正常。这并不影响贫血病人的食谱中食用肝脏，因为已经了解肝脏内含有丰富的维生素。 1924年迈诺特与其助手墨菲开始对恶性贫血病人用进食肝疗法。到1926年共观察了45例，取得了惊人的疗效。自此以后，恶性贫血病就已成为了一种众人皆知的可治之病。在某种意义上迈诺特是对医学上还了一笔债，因为他自己患糖尿病，若不是班廷分离出胰岛素及时的挽救了他的生命，他肯定会早死。

1928年迈诺特任哈佛大学医学院教授。1934年与惠普尔(George Hoyt Whipple，1878—1976)、墨菲(William Parry Murphy，1892—1987)三人共获诺贝尔生理学或医学奖。迈诺特关于恶性贫血的病因是某种维生素缺乏的设想是十分正确的，在其后二十年已被福克斯等人所证实。

英文介绍

George Richards Minot was born on December 2, 1885, at Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. His ancestor, George Minot, had migrated to America in 1630, from Saffron Walden, England. His father, James Jackson Minot, was a physician, and his mother was Elizabeth Whitney.

In his youth Minot was interested in butterflies and moths, and he published two articles on butterflies. He went to Harvard University and there took his A.B. degree in 1908, his M.D. in 1912, and gained an honorary degree of Sc.D. in 1928.

He did his hospital training at the Massachusetts General Hospital and then worked at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School, under W. S. Thayer and W. H. Howell.

In 1915 he was appointed Assistant in Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital and was later appointed to a more senior post there.

In 1922 he became Physician-in-Chief of the Collis P. Huntington Memorial Hospital of Harvard University, and later was appointed to the Staff of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.

In 1928 he was elected Professor of Medicine at Harvard University and Director of the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory and Visiting Physician to the Boston City Hospital.

Minot early became, when he was a medical student, interested in the disorders of the blood with which his name is associated and he published during his life many papers on this and other subjects. Arthritis, cancer, dietary deficiencies, the part played by diet (vitamin B deficiency) in the production of so-called alcoholic polyneuritis and the social aspects of disease were among the subjects of his papers. Further he studied the coagulation of the blood, blood transfusion, the blood platelets and the reticulocytes as well as certain blood disorders, and he described an atypical familial haemorrhagic condition associated with prolonged anaemia. He also studied the condition of the blood in certain cases of industrial poisoning.

Among his other interests were leucaemia, disorders of the lymphatic tissues and polycythaemia, but his most important contributions to knowledge were made in his studies of anaemia. His name will always be associated with the therapy of pernicious anaemia, in which he first became interested in 1914, but it was not until later that he, like William P. Murphy, became impressed by the work of George Hoyt Whipple on the treatment of experimental forms of anaemia in dogs, and in 1926 he and Murphy described the effective treatment of pernicious anaemia by means of liver. For this work he and Murphy and Whipple were awarded, in 1934, the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Subsequently, Minot, in collaboration with Edwin J. Cohn, extended this work by showing the efficacy of certain fractions of liver substance and he demonstrated the value of reticulocyte reactions in the evaluation of therapeutic procedures. He also added to knowledge of gastro-intestinal functions and of iron therapy for anaemia, and to knowledge of other aspects of this group of diseases.

Minot was member or fellow of numerous medical and allied organizations in his own country and abroad, and served as Editor of several medical publications. Among the many honours and distinctions he received, may be mentioned: the Cameron Prize in Practical Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh, in 1930 (jointly with W. P. Murphy), the Popular Science Monthly Gold Medal and Annual Award for 1930 (jointly with G. H. Whipple), and the John Scott Medal of the City of Philadelphia.

On June 29, 1915, Minot married Marian Linzee Weld; there were two daughters and one son by this marriage.

After a long and busy life, during which he made many important contributions to medical knowledge, especially to that of diseases of the blood, Minot died, full of honours, in 1950.

From Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1922-1941, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1965

This autobiography/biography was first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

George R. Minot died on February 25, 1950.