Mabel Purefoy FitzGerald

Mabel Purefoy FitzGerald (born August 3, 1872 in Preston Candover , Hampshire , England , † August 24, 1973 in Oxford , England) was a British physiologist and clinical pathologist , known for her work on the physiology of breathing . She became the second female member of the American Physiological Society in 1913 .

Youth and education

Mabel FitzGerald was born in Preston Candover near Basingstoke in 1872. She was raised at home, which was typical of the upper and middle class girls of her time. In 1895, both of her parents died and Mabel and her sisters moved to Oxford in 1896. She began teaching herself chemistry and biology from books, as well as taking classes at Oxford University from 1896 to 1899 , although women were not yet allowed to graduate. She continued her studies at the University of Copenhagen , Cambridge University and New York University .

job

Mabel began working with Francis Gotch in the Physiology Department at Oxford. Gotch also helped her get a paper published by the Royal Society in 1906 .

From 1904 on, FitzGerald worked with John Scott Haldane on measuring the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the human lungs . After studying the differences between healthy and sick people, the two went on to study the effects of altitude on breathing; it is this work that she is best known for. FitzGerald's observations on the effects of full altitude acclimatization on carbon dioxide partial pressure and hemoglobin remain accepted to this day. In 1907, FitzGerald was awarded a Rockefeller Travel Fellowship, which allowed her to work in New York and Toronto.

Next life

Mabel FitzGerald returned in 1915 back to the UK to work as a clinical pathologist in Edinburgh Hospital, in a position, by virtue of the First World War was unoccupied. She stopped publishing papers and remained out of touch with the physiological community even after returning to Oxford in 1930.

In 1961, on the centenary of the birth of Haldane, their work was rediscovered. In 1972, at the age of 100, she received an honorary Master of Arts from Oxford University, 75 years after attending lectures there. She was also appointed a member of the Physiological Society.

Selected publications

• MP FitzGerald, JS Haldane: The normal alveolar carbonic acid pressure in man. In: The Journal of Physiology. Volume 32, No. 5-6, July 13, 1905, pp. 486-494. PMC 1465735 (free full text). PMID 16992788 .
• MP FitzGerald: The changes in the breathing and the blood at various high altitudes. In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing Papers of a Biological Character. Volume 203 No. 294-302, 1913, pp. 351-371, doi: 10.1098 / rstb.1913.0008 .
• MP FitzGerald: Further observations on the changes in the breathing and the blood at various high altitudes. In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing Papers of a Biological Character. Volume 88, No. 602, 1914, pp. 248-258, bibcode : 1914RSPSB..88..248P , doi: 10.1098 / rspb.1914.0072 .

literature

• EH Bensley: Sir William Osler and Mabel Purefoy Fitzgerald. In: Osler Library newsletter. Volume 21, 1978, pp. 17-18.
• W [age]. John]. O'Connor: British physiologists 1885-1914. A biographical dictionary. Manchester University Press, 1991
• Marilyn Ogilvie and Joyce Harvey (Eds.): The biographical dictionary of women in science. Pioneering lives from ancient times to the mid-20th century. Routledge, New York, London 2000
• Martin Goodman: The high-altitude research of Mabel Purefoy FitzGerald, 1911-13. In: Notes and Records. The Royal Society, Volume 69, No. 1, 2015, pp. 85-99, doi: 10.1098 / rsnr.2014.0061 .