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 written at the time of the award and 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.
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1934