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NeoReviews Vol.8 No.11 2007 e455
© 2007 American Academy of Pediatrics

Historical Perspectives

Perinatal Profiles: Robert McCance and Elsie Widdowson: Pioneers in Neonatal Science

The first 300 words of the full text of this article appear below.

	Introduction

 
Robert McCance and Elsie Widdowson have a special place in the history of neonatal science. Their use of experimentation and observation of human infants and many other species built much of the knowledge of perinatal physiology, particularly that related to nutrition and renal function, which underpins modern neonatology. Neither was a clinical pediatrician, but they had a major influence on the first wave of neonatologists trained in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and 1970s. Their stories show how the combination of intellectual curiosity and practical skill can lead to new knowledge in unexpected directions.

	Robert McCance

 
Robert McCance was born in Northern Ireland in 1898. He joined the newly formed Royal Naval Air Service in the First World War and flew an observation aircraft launched from a gun turret on a battleship. After the war, he worked on a farm for 6 months before studying natural sciences at the University of Cambridge from 1919 to 1922. He joined the biochemistry laboratory of Fredrick Gowland Hopkins (1929 Nobel laureate in Medicine for his work on vitamins and beriberi) and obtained his PhD. In 1926, McCance moved to King's College Hospital, London, to complete his clinical training in medicine and worked part-time in the biochemical and diabetic department. This was the era before insulin, and he worked on separating different carbohydrates in cooked fruits and vegetables. It was important to know which carbohydrates could be metabolized as fuel (eg, glucose, fructose, sucrose) and which could not (eg, polysaccharides now classed as fiber). He progressed to analyzing the content of meat and fish. In 1933, while sampling joints of meat in the hospital kitchens, he met Elsie Widdowson, a trainee dietitian, and their 60-year scientific partnership began.

	Elsie Widdowson

 
Elsie Widdowson was born in 1906 in southeast London. She was inspired by her chemistry teacher at . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Andrew Whitelaw, MD, FRCPCH^*

^* Professor of Neonatal Medicine, University of Bristol Medical School, Southmead Hospital, Bristol, United Kingdom

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