Jan Janský (; 3 April 1873 – 8 September 1921) was a Czech serologist,

neurologist Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...

and

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

. He is credited with the classification of

blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood is com ...

into four

types Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

(I, II, III, IV).

Life and education

Janský was born on 3 April 1873 in Smíchov (now part of

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

). He studied

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

in Prague. From 1899, he worked in the Psychiatric Clinic in Prague. In 1914, he was named

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Janský served two years as a doctor at the front until a heart attack disabled him. After the war he worked as a neuropsychiatrist in a military Hospital (''Vojenská nemocnice''). He had angina pectoralis and died of ischaemic heart disease in Dolní Mokropsy on 8 September 1921, at the age of 48. Janský was also a proponent of voluntary

blood donation A 'blood donation'' occurs when a person voluntarily has blood drawn and used for transfusions and/or made into biopharmaceutical medications by a process called fractionation (separation of whole blood components). A donation may be of wh ...

Classification

Through his psychiatric research, Janský tried to find a correlation between mental diseases and blood diseases. He found no such correlation existed and published a study, ''Hematologická studie u psychotiků'' (1907, ''Hematological study of psychotics''), in which he classified blood into four groups, I, II, III, and IV. (At the time, Janský was unaware of the work of Karl Landsteiner, whose discovery of the A, B, and O blood types earned him 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, acco ...

in 1930.) At the time Janský's discovery passed almost unnoticed. In 1921 an American medical commission acknowledged Janský's classification. A similar classification was described by

William Lorenzo Moss William Lorenzo Moss (23 August 1876 – August 12, 1957) was an American physician and professor of medicine. He developed the Moss System of blood groups in 1910 which was used to ensure safe blood transfusions before more detailed classification ...

, except the I and IV of Moss were the opposite to that of Janský's, leading to confusion in

blood transfusion Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's Circulatory system, circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used ...

until the use of A, B and O became standard.

Legacy

* Frequent voluntary blood donors in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

and

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

are awarded with Janský medal (''Janského plaketa''). * The Secret of Blood, a 1953 Czechoslovak film about his discovery.

References

External links

Biography
on zivotopisyonline.cz {{DEFAULTSORT:Jansky, Jan 1873 births 1921 deaths Czech neurologists Hematology Serologists Blood Charles University alumni Academic staff of Charles University Czech psychiatrists Scientists from Prague Deaths from coronary artery disease Psychiatrists from Austria-Hungary Czechoslovak psychiatrists