Dr. Murphy Announces Considerable Progress In Anemia Cure Search

Following closely upon the discovery of Thomas H. Ham, assistant in Medicine, and William B. Castle '17, professor of Medicine, that most forms of anemia result from stagnation of the blood within the blood vessels, Dr. William P. Murphy, associate in Medicine, admitted last night that he has recently made "considerable progress" in perfecting the remedy for anemia.

Murphy, Dr. George R. Minot '08, professor of Medicine, and Dr. George H. Whipple, of Rochester University, shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1934 when they discovered that liver and liver extracts are good remedies for anemia.

Made First Extracts

Murphy stated last night that he himself made the first liver extracts in water form, and that most of the early work along this line was done in his laboratory. "I had some experimental evidence that liver was useful in maturing cells," he said, "and I became interested in applying this fact to anemia."

Now most liver extracts are made by commercial pharmaceutical houses, and the principles which Murphy was instrumental in developing are in very general use.

In treating pernicious anemia, which used to be fatal before Murphy's research, only one cubic centimeter of the modern extracts are necessary to last the patient for three or four weeks. Most of the modern extracts are parenteral (or injected between the muscles).

Murphy and his fellow researcher, Minot, are members of the select group of thirteen men who now represent the U.S. as Nobel Prize science winners.