Alfred Fabian Hess

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Alfred Fabian Hess (9 October 1875, in New York City – 5 December 1933) was an American physician known for his work on the role of nutrition in scurvy and rickets and for describing the Hess test.

Biography

Hess was born on October 15, 1875, to a

Beth Israel Hospital, New York,[2] and at the Hebrew Infant Asylum in New York, modernising the institution. He was able to study nutrition in patients who were admitted for long periods in those hospitals. His friends included Abraham Flexner and Edwards Amasa Park, who helped to publish Hess's works posthumously.[3]

Hess suggested that rubella was caused by a virus in 1914.[4]

He showed that the missing factor in scurvy was present in citrus fruits and tomatoes, also demonstrating that some dried milk preparations were anti-scorbutic and that pasteurization reduced this effect in fresh milk.[5] Along with Mildred Fish, he conducted studies between 1914 and 1920 to elucidate the etiology of scurvey by withholding orange juice from institutionalized infants until they developed hemorrhages as a result of the disease; he conducted similar studies to elucidate the etiology of rickets. His work led him to state that the process of food manufacture and preservation should aim to preserve the nutritional value of fresh food in his 1921 Harvey lecture, a concept widely recognised today.

He determined that rickets could be prevented with cod liver oil or exposure to

Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus and published a paper with Windaus in 1927 entitled Development of marked activity in ergosterol following ultraviolet irradiations, showing that rickets could be prevented in rats with irradiated ergosterol. Windaus was awarded the Nobel Prize
in chemistry for this work in 1928. Windaus gave Hess credit for his part in the work, and shared the Nobel Prize money with him.

Hess was a member of the American Pediatric Society and the

John Scott Award by the Franklin Institute in 1927, and the John Mather Smith Award in 1931. That same year, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.[8]

He continued to work despite warnings by his doctor about his hypertension. He collapsed in his car and died after speaking at a graduation ceremony on 5 December 1933.[3]

Personal life

He was married to Sara Straus, daughter of Ida and Isidor Straus; they had three children: Eleanor Hess (born 1906), Margaret Hess (born 1907), and Alfred Selmar Hess (born 1910).[9]

References

  1. ^ Schwartz, Julius; Kaye, Solomon Aaron; Simons, John (1926). Who's who in American Jewry, Volume 1. p. 264.
  2. S2CID 11225344. Full text
  3. ^
    PMID 13814074. PDF
  4. ^ Hess AF. German Measles: an experimental study. The Archives of Internal Medicine, Chicago, 1914; 13: 913–916.
  5. ^ Hess AF. Scurvy, past and present. Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott, 1920.
  6. PMID 18010639
    .
  7. PMID 17791245
    .
  8. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2023-07-07.
  9. ISBN 9781334712180
    .

External links

Alfred Fabian Hess at

Who Named It?

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alfred_Fabian_Hess&oldid=1180416787"