William Parry Murphy ( Stoughton, Wisconsin, February 6, 1892 – October 9, 1987) was an American physician who shared the

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accord ...

in 1934 with

George Richards Minot George Richards Minot (December 2, 1885 – February 25, 1950) was an American medical researcher who shared the 1934 Nobel Prize with George Hoyt Whipple and William P. Murphy for their pioneering work on pernicious anemia. Early life George Ri ...

and

George Hoyt Whipple George Hoyt Whipple (August 28, 1878 – February 1, 1976) was an American physician, pathologist, biomedical researcher, and medical school educator and administrator. Whipple shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1934 with George ...

for their combined work in devising and treating macrocytic

anemia Anemia or anaemia (British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, or a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin. When anemia comes on slowly, th ...

(specifically,

pernicious anemia Pernicious anemia is a type of vitamin B12 deficiency anemia, a disease in which not enough red blood cells are produced due to the malabsorption of vitamin B12. Malabsorption in pernicious anemia results from the lack or loss of intrinsic fa ...

). Murphy was born on February 6, 1892, at Stoughton,

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and moved to Condon, Oregon as a youth. He was educated at the public schools of Wisconsin and Oregon. He completed his A.B. degree in 1914 from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

. He completed his M.D. in 1922 from

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

. In 1924, Murphy bled dogs to make them anemic (work inspired by war injury work), and then fed them various substances to gauge their improvement. He discovered that ingesting large amounts of liver seemed to restore anemia more quickly of all foods. Minot and Whipple then set about to chemically isolate the curative substance. These investigations showed that iron in the liver was responsible for curing anemia from bleeding, but meanwhile liver had been tried on people with

and some effect as seen there, also. The active ingredient in this case, found serendipitously, was not iron, but rather a water-soluble extract containing a new substance. From this extract, chemists were ultimately were able to isolate vitamin B₁₂ from the liver. Even before the vitamin had been completely characterized, the knowledge that raw liver and its extracts treated

(previously a terminal disease) was a major advance in medicine. In 1930, Murphy was awarded the

Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh The Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh is awarded by the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine to a person who has made any highly important and valuable addition to Practical Therapeutics in the previous five ye ...

with

George Minot George Richards Minot (December 2, 1885 – February 25, 1950) was an American medical researcher who shared the 1934 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nobel Prize with George Hoyt Whipple and William P. Murphy for their pioneering work on p ...

. Murphy married Pearl Harriett Adams (died 1980) on September 10, 1919. They had a son,

William P. Murphy Jr. William P. Murphy Jr. (born November 11, 1923) is a medical doctor and inventor of medical devices including collaborating on a flexible sealed blood bag used for blood transfusions. He is the son of the American physician William Parry Murphy ...

, and a daughter, Priscilla Adams.Murphy, William P.
at

SNAC Social Networks and Archival Context (SNAC) is an online project for discovering, locating, and using distributed historical records in regard to individual people, families, and organizations. The project SNAC is a digital research project t ...

website In 1951, Murphy was one of seven Nobel Laureates who attended the 1st

Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings are annual scientific conferences held in Lindau, Bavaria, Germany, since 1951. Their aim is to bring together Nobel laureates and young scientists to foster scientific exchange between different generations, ...

References

External links

William Parry Murphy papers
1906-1987 (inclusive), 1919-1987 (bulk), HMS c284. Harvard Medical Library
Harvard Medical School
* including the Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1934 ''Pernicious Anemia'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, William 1892 births 1987 deaths Harvard Medical School alumni Harvard University faculty University of Oregon alumni Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine American Nobel laureates People from Stoughton, Wisconsin Physicians from Oregon People from Condon, Oregon Vitamin researchers