John Rodman Paul
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John Rodman Paul (April 18, 1893 – May 6, 1971) was an American
virologist Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, their ...
whose research focused on the spread of
polio Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...
and the development of treatments for the disease.


Life and achievements

Paul was born on April 18, 1893, in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. He earned his
undergraduate degree An undergraduate degree (also called first degree or simply degree) is a colloquial term for an academic degree earned by a person who has completed undergraduate courses. In the United States, it is usually offered at an institution of higher e ...
in 1915 from
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
and received his medical training at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, which awarded him an M.D. degree.Staff
"Dr. John Paul, Polio Researcher, Dies"
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', May 7, 1971. Accessed September 27, 2010.
He began his career as an assistant pathologist at Johns Hopkins in 1919 and 1920, and followed that with an internship at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia from 1920 to 1922. In 1928, Paul joined the faculty of the
Yale School of Medicine The Yale School of Medicine is the graduate medical school at Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. The primary te ...
as a professor of internal medicine and held the position of professor of preventive medicine starting in 1940, which he retained until his retirement. Paul established the Yale Poliomyelitis Study Unit in 1931 together with James D. Trask, advancing the concept of "clinical epidemiology" in which the path of disease outbreaks in small communities was directly studied. Together with Trask, Paul received the first grant from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (better known as the
March of Dimes March of Dimes is a United States nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies. The organization was founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938, as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, to comba ...
), which was renewed each year for another 30 years. As part of the study unit, Paul went to
Middletown, Connecticut Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States, Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, it is south of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated by English settler ...
and New Haven into neighborhoods where polio was spreading and collected samples from patients in an effort to understand how the virus spread. Paul's team found that
poliovirus A poliovirus, the causative agent of polio (also known as poliomyelitis), is a serotype of the species ''Enterovirus C'', in the family of ''Picornaviridae''. There are three poliovirus serotypes: types 1, 2, and 3. Poliovirus is composed of an ...
was excreted by people afflicted with the condition and could be found in sewage in areas that had experienced outbreaks. In a 1951 article published in ''The New York Times Magazine'' in 1951, Paul noted the improvements that had been made in treating and relieving pain in those afflicted with polio, but lamented the lack of progress in prevention of polio. He travelled to the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in 1956 as part of a group of five doctors who visited medical facilities there. Paul's research also included work on
hepatitis Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver tissue. Some people or animals with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), poor appetite, vomiting, tiredness, abdominal pa ...
, infectious mononucleosis and
rheumatic fever Rheumatic fever (RF) is an inflammatory disease that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain. The disease typically develops two to four weeks after a streptococcal throat infection. Signs and symptoms include fever, multiple painful jo ...
. After his retirement from the medical school in 1961, he continued to lecture on the history of medicine. Paul became a professor emeritus in 1961 and until 1966, served as the director of the World Health Organization Serum Reference Bank located in the Yale Department of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. As a member of the polio advisory committee of the United States Public Health Service, Paul joined in a 1962 recommendation that the use of an oral polio vaccine created by Albert B. Sabin in treating adults should be halted based on the lack of clinical evidence showing that the vaccine prevented those receiving the vaccine from developing the disease. In his 1971 book ''A History of Poliomyelitis'', Paul put forth the proposition that humans had always been exposed to
poliovirus A poliovirus, the causative agent of polio (also known as poliomyelitis), is a serotype of the species ''Enterovirus C'', in the family of ''Picornaviridae''. There are three poliovirus serotypes: types 1, 2, and 3. Poliovirus is composed of an ...
but had been protected by antibodies contained in the mothers milk, and that it was the clean water, sewer systems and improved hygiene of modern civilization that prevented children from being exposed to the virus at an early age, hypothesizing that protection would be conferred if people were exposed to the virus as infants. Orent, Wendy
"Still a Scourge"
, ''proto: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Medicine'',
Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...
. Spring 2006. Accessed September 27, 2010.
A resident of the
New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
suburb of
Guilford Guildford is a town in Surrey, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Guildford, the Diocese of Guildford and the Parliamentary constituency of Guildford. Guildford, Guilford, or Gildford may also refer to: Places Australia * Guildfor ...
, Paul died at age 78 on May 6, 1971, at
Yale – New Haven Hospital Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) is a 1,541-bed hospital located in New Haven, Connecticut. It is owned and operated by the Yale New Haven Health System. YNHH includes the 168-bed Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven, the 201-bed Yale New Have ...
after what ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' described in his obituary as a "long illness".


Publications

A complete list of Paul's numerous publications can be found in the NAS publication by Horstmann and Beeson pp. 347−368 * ''A History of Poliomyelitis''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971.


Awards

* 1945: Member of the
United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
* 1946: Medal of Freedom * 1946:
Charles V. Chapin Charles Value Chapin (January 17, 1856 – January 31, 1941) was an American pioneer in public health research and practice during the Progressive Era. He was superintendent of health for Providence, Rhode Island between 1884 and 1932. He est ...
Award * 1950: Honorary member of the
Royal Society of Medicine The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) is a medical society in the United Kingdom, headquartered in London. History The Society was established in 1805 as Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, meeting in two rooms in barristers’ chambers ...
in London * 1954: The Howard T. Rickets Award * 1958: Inducted into the Polio Hall of Fame in Warm Springs, GeorgiaEpidemiology and Public Health at Yale: A Yale Tercentennial Exhibit
,
Yale School of Public Health The Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) was founded in 1915 by Charles-Edward Amory Winslow and is one of the oldest public health masters programs in the United States. It is consistently rated among the best schools of public health in the cou ...
. Accessed September 27, 2010.
* 1963:
Kober Medal The George M. Kober Medal and Lectureship are two different awards by the Association of American Physicians (AAP) in honor of one of its early presidents, George M. Kober. The George M. Kober Lectureship, is an honor given to an AAP member "for ou ...
by the Association of American Physicians


References


Further reading

* Dorothy M. Horstmann, Paul B. Beeson: ''John Rodman Paul, 1893−1971, A biographical memoir'', published by The National Academy of Sciences, Washington D.C, 1975; also onlin
PDF
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paul, John R. 1893 births 1971 deaths American virologists Johns Hopkins School of Medicine alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences People from Guilford, Connecticut Scientists from Philadelphia Recipients of the Medal of Freedom Princeton University alumni Yale School of Medicine faculty