Medicine: 1929

1) Eijkman, Christiaan, pronounced EYEK mahn, KRIHS tee ahn (1858-1930), a Dutch physician and pathologist, discovered a vitamin that cures neuritis (inflamation of the nerves). In the late 1890's, he showed that people who ate polished rice (rice with the husks and bran removed) developed a disease called beriberi. This disease can lead to damage to the nervous system. People who ate unpolished rice did not develop beriberi. Eijkman concluded that the husks and bran of the rice contained an "anti-beriberi" factor that was essential for health. Scientists later identified this factor as thiamine, also known as Vitamin B1. Eijkman's work led to the concept of vitamins, chemicals in food that are essential to health. In 1929, Eijkman was awarded the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine, sharing the award with British chemist Sir Frederick Hopkins, who worked on other aspects of vitamins.

Eijkman was born in Nijkerk, the Netherlands. In 1883, he graduated from the University of Amsterdam with a medical degree. After serving as a medical officer in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) for three years, he began researching bacteria in Berlin. In 1886, he travelled to Java where he carried out his investigations into beriberi, working first with birds and then with human beings. In 1896, Eijkman returned to the Netherlands, where he became professor of public health and forensic medicine at the University of Utrecht.

2) Hopkins, Sir Frederick (1861-1947), an English biochemist, helped discover the importance of vitamins in nutrition. Hopkins found that small amounts of certain substances in foods could greatly assist the body's growth and development. These substances, which Hopkins called "accessory food factors," later came to be known as vitamins. For this work, Hopkins shared the 1929 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Dutch scientist Christiaan Eijkman.

Frederick Gowland Hopkins was born in Eastbourne, near Brighton and Hove, England. In 1894, he received a medical degree from the University of London. In 1914, Hopkins became the first professor of biochemistry at Cambridge University. He was knighted in 1925.