George Richards Minot was born in Boston, Massachusetts to James Jackson Minot (1853–1938) and Elizabeth Whitney.[1] He was namesake of his great-great-grandfather George Richards Minot (1758–1802).[2] His father was a physician; his father's cousin was anatomistCharles Sedgwick Minot (1852–1914);[3] one of his great-grandfathers was James Jackson (1777–1867), co-founder of Massachusetts General Hospital.[4] He developed interest, first, in the natural sciences, and then, in medicine.
Education
Minot obtained his B.A. from Harvard College in 1908, where he was elected to The Owl Club, and obtained his M.D. degree in 1912 from the Harvard Medical School. Between 1913 and 1915, he worked in the William Henry Howell's lab at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, studying blood thinning proteins, such as antithrombin. In 1915, he secured a junior position on the medical staff of the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he started research on blood anemia. During the first world war, he served as a surgeon in for the US Army. As part of those duties, he worked with Alice Hamilton to understand what was causing workers at a munitions plant in New Jersey to become ill. They eventually discovered that skin contact with TNT led to the sicknesses.[5]
Career
In 1917, he came to Collis P. Huntington Memorial Hospital in Boston; he became chief of medical services in 1923, and was appointed physician-in-chief in 1934. In addition, Minot became professor of medicine at the Harvard University, and was appointed director of the Thorndik Memorial Laboratory at Boston City Hospital. He also worked in the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital as a staff member. He was a member of the Pernicious Anemia Committee at Harvard and served on the Anti-Anemia Preparation Advisory Board of the U.S. Pharmacopoeia.[6]
Minot was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus in 1921 at the age of 35, by Dr Elliott P. Joslin, a fellow professor at Harvard Medical School and one of the leading diabetes doctors of his time. Diabetes was a fatal disease at the time. Joslin kept him alive the only way he knew, by restricting food. Minot was 6 feet one inches tall and only weighed 135 pounds. Joslin put him on a diet of only 530 calories per day. Minot, like most every diabetes patient, at the time, would probably die within a year.
However, insulin was discovered at about the same time Minot was diagnosed. Insulin became widely available about a year later Dr. William Castle observed that Frederick Banting's and Charles Best's discovery of insulin in 1921, not only transformed diabetes treatment, but also, by keeping Minot alive, contributed towards the discovery of a cure for pernicious anemia.[11] Minot and Murphy's famous paper Treatment of pernicious anemia by a special diet was published in 1926.[12]
^Winthrop, Robert Charles (March 12, 1874). "Hon, William Minot". Memoir Read at a Meetingof the Massachusetts Historical Society. Little, Brown: 302–306.
^Minot, George R.; Murphy, William P. (August 14, 1926). "Treatment of pernicious anemia by a special diet". JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. 87 (7). American Medical Association (AMA): 470–476. doi:10.1001/jama.1926.02680070016005. ISSN0098-7484.
Rackemann, F M (1956). The Inquisitive Physician: The Life and Times of George Richards Minot, A.B, M.D., D.Sc. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Minot, George R.; Murphy, William P. (February 1978). "Nutrition Classics. The Journal of the American Medical Association 87:470-6, 1926. Treatment of pernicious anemia by a special diet. George R. Minot and William P. Murphy". Nutr. Rev.36 (2): 50–52. doi:10.1111/j.1753-4887.1978.tb07339.x. ISSN0029-6643. PMID345160. S2CID6081862.
Sulek, K (April 1968). "[Nobel prize in 1934 for G.H. Whipple, G.R. Minot and W.P. Murphy for discovery of treatment of anemia with liver extracts]". Wiad. Lek.21 (7). Poland: 627–9. ISSN0043-5147. PMID4876155.
