George Nuttall

George Henry Falkiner Nuttall

After a short period working at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore under H. Newell Martin, he went to Göttingen in 1886 working with Carl Flügge and others. His research in Göttingen included studies on mechanisms of immunity. He received his PhD in zoology in 1890.^[6] After a year travelling he returned to Baltimore, working under William H. Welch and becoming associate in hygiene in 1892. He worked on the tubercle bacillus and identified the bacillus responsible for gas gangrene, now known as Clostridium perfringens.^[1][7]

From 1892 to 1899 Nuttall was in Germany once more, first in Göttingen, then in Berlin, where he worked at the Hygienic Institute (hygienischen Institut). In 1893 He published Hygienic Measures in Relation to Infectious Diseases, a book dealing with cleanliness, disinfection and fumigation in medical practice.^[9] He married Paula von Oertzen-Kittendorf in 1895. Working with Hans Thierfelder he developed methods for rearing guinea pigs under aseptic conditions, with no gut bacteria.^[10] This work laid the foundation for the field of Gnotobiosis, the study of organisms with known micro-organism populations.^[11][12] In 1895 he designed a microscopic thermostat for maintaining biological materials under studiy at a constant temperature. This was used for many years.^[1][8] During this period his interest in the role of insects in transmission of disease developed, which would continue to be a major topic of research.^[1]

In May 1899 Nuttall travelled to

In 1919 Nuttall appealed for funds to create an Institute for Parasitical Research in Cambridge. Percy Molteno and his wife donated the sum of £30,000 for this purpose. The Molteno Institute for Research in Parasitology was opened in 1921 with Nuttall as its first director.^[15] The Quick Department was transferred to the Molteno Institute.^[1]

His writings include some 150 articles in professional journals.^[16] After the establishment of the Molteno Institute, Nuttall became increasingly occupied with administration and fundraising, and published few papers. His wife Paula died in 1922. One publication from this period is a biographical note on German scientists of an earlier generation who he had known.^[17] He resigned the Quick Professorshipin 1931, and became emeritus Professor of Biology. He died suddenly in December 1937, and was survived by two sons, George and Winfred, and a daughter Carmelita.^[1][5]

Mechanisms of Immunity

In the early 1880s, Metchnikoff had observed phagocytosis of bacteria and other foreign matter by animal cells including leucocytes in mammals, and proposed that this was the mechanism by which animals protect themselves against infection. This idea was controversial at the time. Josef von Fodor had shown an apparent germicidal action of blood against anthrax bacilli,^[18] but critics suggested that the bacilli were being entrapped by clotting rather than destroyed.^[19] Nuttall, carried out a series of experiments with defibrinated blood from various species, and clearly established the germicidal action of blood in the absence of clotting, and also that the germicidal action was lost after the blood was heated to 55 °C.^[20] These results formed the basis of the humoral theory of immunity, as opposed to the cellular theory of Metchnikoff, and also stimulated the work that led to the development of antitoxin therapy, particularly for diphtheria and tetanus.^[5] Initially the humoral and cellular theories were seen as rival explanations of immunity, but it soon became clear that processes of both kinds occur and complement one another.^[21][22][23]

Phylogenetic relationships

Darwin's theory of Evolution - descent with modification - provided a theoretical basis for classification in biology, species within a taxon sharing a more or less recent common ancestor. For nearly half a century, the only criteria for classification remained morphological, as had been the case with pre-evolutionary systems such as that of Linnaeus. Classification based on morphology has two main limitations: difficulty in dealing with convergent evolution where similar forms arise in species that are not closely related; and an inability to provide a quantitative measure of relatedness.^[24]: 102 The precipitin reaction was first described by Rudolf Kraus in 1897, an insoluble product being formed in an antigen-antibody interaction.^[25] The reaction was at first thought to be specific, but it was soon found that while the protein used to generate the antibody gave the strongest reaction, related proteins could give lesser reactions. This finding was developed by Nuttall into a quantitative method in which the amount of precipitate was measured. Using serum from a wide variety of animals he was able to show that the degree of immune reaction between species indicated the relationship between them.^[26][27][24] In a major work Blood immunity and blood relationship Nuttall and his colleagues presented the data from over 16,000 tests with serum from a wide range of animal species, both vertebrate and invertebrate.^[28] This work was the starting point for the field of molecular evolution.^[29][30]

Arthropods as disease vectors

In 1900 Nuttall and

Nuttall began working on ticks and tick-transmitted diseases in 1904.

Nuttall made extensive studies on ticks in collaboration with Cecil Warburton L.E. Robinson and F.W. Cooper. This led to numerous papers and an exhaustive monograph that appeared in three parts between 1908 and 1915.^[44] The publications, mostly in the journal Parasitology cover the anatomy, biology and classification of ticks, as well as observations on the diseases they transmit, including "tick paralysis".^[45] In the course of this work, Nuttall accumulated a very large collection of ticks from many parts of the world.^[1] The collection is now in the Natural History Museum, London.^[5]

Another arthropod, that became increasingly important during World War I was the louse. Nuttall, carried out a series of studies that, as with many of his other researches, combined a theoretical and zoological approach with practical concerns.^[46][47]

Parasites named for him

• Nuttallia — this name was given to a genus of piroplasms. However the name was found to be pre-occupied by a genus of North American bivalves and the generic name now used for the piroplasms is Babesia.^[48]
• Nuttalliellidae — Tick family found in southern Africa
  Nuttalliella namaqua.^[50]

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to George Nuttall.

• Dorland's Medical Dictionary
  (1938)
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
  New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help
  )