Archibald Garrod facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Archibald Garrod
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| Born | 25 November 1857 London, England
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| Died | 28 March 1936 (aged 78) Cambridge, England
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| Nationality | English |
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| Known for | Alkaptonuria, Albinism |
| Awards | Fellow of the Royal Society |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Medicine |
| Institutions | University of Oxford |
Sir Archibald Edward Garrod (born November 25, 1857 – died March 28, 1936) was an English doctor. He was a pioneer in studying "inborn errors of metabolism." This means he was one of the first to understand how some diseases happen because of tiny mistakes in our body's chemistry from birth. He also discovered a condition called alkaptonuria and figured out how it was passed down in families. He was a very important professor of medicine at the University of Oxford for several years.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Archibald Garrod was born in London. His father, Sir Alfred Baring Garrod, was also a famous doctor. His father discovered how unusual uric acid levels were linked to a condition called gout. This was one of the first times someone measured chemicals in a living human body.
Archibald had two older brothers who also had successful careers. His eldest brother, Alfred Henry Garrod, became a well-known expert on birds. His other brother, Herbert, was a lawyer and a scholar.
From a young age, Archibald was interested in nature. He especially loved butterflies. When he was 12, he started collecting them. He noticed how few female butterflies there were. This made him think about how traits might be passed down in living things.
He went to Marlborough College and then to Christ Church at the University of Oxford. He didn't do very well at Marlborough because he didn't like studying old languages like Latin. But he excelled in natural science. He earned a top degree in 1878.
In 1880, he continued his medical training. He studied at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London. He won several scholarships there. After graduating in 1884, he spent a year studying in Vienna. His time in Vienna helped him write a book about using a tool called a laryngoscope. This book was very popular.
In 1885, he earned more degrees from Oxford. He also became a member of the Royal College of Physicians in London.
Family Life
Archibald married Laura Elizabeth Smith in 1886. They had three sons and one daughter. Their daughter, Dorothy Garrod, became a famous archaeologist. She was the first woman to hold a professor's job at Oxford or Cambridge. She did important work on the Stone Age.
First World War and Family Loss
During the First World War, Garrod worked as a medical advisor for the army. He mainly served in Malta. In 1918, he was honored for his service during the war.
Sadly, two of his sons died during the war. Thomas Martin Garrod died in 1915 when he was 20. Alfred Noel Garrod died in 1916 at age 28.
In 1919, his third son, Basil Rahere Garrod, died at 21. He passed away in Cologne during the Spanish flu pandemic.
Medical Career and Discoveries
For the next 20 years, Dr. Garrod worked at several hospitals in London. These included St. Bartholomew's Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.
In 1892, he became an assistant doctor at Great Ormond Street Hospital. He was very interested in studying urine. He looked at how its color changed in healthy people and those with diseases. His childhood interest in colors, like in butterflies, helped him notice these differences.
Garrod believed that medical practice should be based on scientific research. He wrote many articles and books about different diseases. He also helped start a journal called Quarterly Journal of Medicine. This journal was a place for doctors to share new research about diseases.
He also helped edit a textbook for children's diseases. It was called Diseases of Children and was published in 1913.
Understanding Inborn Errors of Metabolism
Garrod is most famous for his scientific work on "inborn errors of metabolism." He became very interested in how the body's chemistry works. He studied urine chemistry to learn about the body's overall metabolism and diseases.
He combined his research with new ideas about Mendelian inheritance. This is how traits are passed from parents to children. He started by studying a rare disease called alkaptonuria. This led him to realize that many mysterious diseases could be inherited problems with the body's chemistry.
In the 1890s, he worked with Frederick Gowland Hopkins. Hopkins was a well-known biochemist. He studied how vitamins affect health. Garrod's interest in color variations, influenced by Hopkins, made him notice changes in urine color.
In 1897, a mother brought her baby to the hospital. The baby's diaper was stained brownish-black. Dr. Garrod recorded the family's history. He watched the baby's health over the years. He soon found 40 other cases of this disorder. He also read about the first time this condition was noted in 1822.
In 1900, the same mother had another baby. Garrod had nurses carefully check the baby's diaper. They saw the black urine just 52 hours after the baby was born. Garrod realized that the condition, alkaptonuria, was something people were born with. He also noticed that it was more common in children whose parents were first cousins.
Working with another scientist, William Bateson, Garrod used Mendel's ideas to understand how alkaptonuria appeared in children. In 1902, he published a paper called "The Incidence of Alkaptonuria: A Study of Chemical Individuality." In this paper, Garrod explained his findings. He also guessed what might cause the condition. He compared alkaptonuria to albinism in how it was inherited.
Garrod wrote about "chemical individuality." He believed that each person's unique body chemistry made them more or less likely to get certain diseases. He didn't know about genes yet, but his ideas were very close to that concept.
Alkaptonuria is a rare family disease. It causes urine to turn dark brown or black when it touches the air. Later in life, people with this disease can get arthritis. This happens because a brown substance builds up in their joints. Garrod studied how the disease appeared in families. He realized it followed a pattern called autosomal recessive inheritance. This means a child needs to get two copies of a faulty gene (one from each parent) to get the disease. He thought it was caused by a mistake in a gene that makes an enzyme. Enzymes are special proteins that help chemical reactions in the body.
In 1908, Garrod gave important talks about his work. These talks were called "Inborn Errors of Metabolism." He published them as a book the next year. He also studied other inherited conditions. These included cystinuria, pentosuria, and albinism. These four conditions are sometimes called Garrod's tetrad. In 1923, he updated his famous book with more studies.
Awards and Recognition
As people realized how important his work was, Garrod received many honors. He took over from William Osler as the main professor of medicine at Oxford. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1910. He also became an honorary member of several medical groups around the world. He received special degrees from many universities. In 1935, he won the Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
There is a group in Canada called the Garrod Association. It helps manage hereditary metabolic diseases. It is named after him to honor his contributions.
Death
Archibald Garrod died in 1936 at his daughter's home in Cambridge. He was buried in Highgate Cemetery in London.
Quotation
... scientific method is not the same as the scientific spirit. The scientific spirit does not rest content with applying that which is already known, but is a restless spirit, ever pressing forward towards the regions of the unknown, ... it acts as a check, as well as a stimulus, sifting the value of the evidence, and rejecting that which is worthless, and restraining too eager flights of the imagination and too hasty conclusions.
—Archibald Garrod, Archibald Garrod, "The Scientific Spirit in Medicine: Inaugural Sessional Address to the Abernethian Society", St. Bartholomew's Hospital Journal, 20, 19 (1912)
