2021-02-25 Thu

George Minot was an American medical researcher. Born on 2nd December 1885, in Boston, Massachusetts, Minot was the great-grandson of James Jackson, co-founder of Massachusetts General Hospital in 1821. His father, James Jackson Minot, was a physician, and his mother was Elizabeth Whitney.

Graduating from Harvard College he enrolled at Harvard Medical School and obtained his MD in 1912. As a house pupil (intern) at the hospital, he became interested in diseases of the blood and began taking meticulous histories of dietary habits of patients with anaemia. During the First World War, he served as a surgeon for the US Army.

He received the Nobel Prize with George Hoyt Whipple and William P. Murphy for Physiology or Medicine in 1934 for the introduction of a raw-liver diet in the treatment of pernicious anaemia, which was previously invariably fatal disease. To honour him Guyana Postal Department has issued a 3500 Dollar commemorative stamp.

Image Source: colnect.com