On the question of the occurrence of creatinine and creatine in blood
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Stanley Rossiter Benedict was an American chemist best known for discovering Benedict's reagent.
Background
Stansley Benedict was born on March 17, 1884, in Cincinnati, Ohio, the third son and fifth of six children of Wayland Richardson and Anne Elizabeth (Kendrick) Benedict. His father was professor of philosophy and psychology at the University of Cincinnati. His mother was a teacher and a writer, the daughter of Asahel Clark Kendrick, professor of Greek at the University of Rochester. One of Benedict's sisters, Mary Kendrick Benedict, became president of Sweet Briar College but gave up educational work for the practice of medicine in New Haven.
Education
Benedict himself had first planned on a medical career, during his boyhood days in the Cincinnati public schools. At the University of Cincinnati, however, from which he received the B. A. degree in 1906, his interests shifted to teaching and research, and after graduation he continued his study at Yale. There he was greatly influenced by Russell H. Chittenden and Lafayette B. Mendel, two pioneers in the then-developing field of physiological chemistry. He received his Ph. D. degree from Yale in 1908.
Career
Benedict spent a year as instructor in chemistry at Syracuse University, followed by a year as associate in biological chemistry at Columbia University. In 1910 he was appointed assistant professor of chemical pathology at Cornell University Medical College in New York City, with which institution he was affiliated for the remainder of his life, after 1913 as professor of chemistry and chairman of the department. Benedict's major contributions to the advancement of knowledge in his field lay in the area of analytical biochemistry, particularly as related to the analysis of blood, urine, and other biological material in connection with the study of normal metabolism and the diagnosis of disease.
Along with Otto Folin, whose work he closely paralleled, Benedict developed precise techniques which made it possible for the first time to learn the chemical processes of the human body and made chemical analysis an important tool in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. The achievements of Folin and Benedict, it has been said, opened a new era in biological chemistry. While still comparatively young, Benedict became well known as the originator of a much improved modification of the classical Fehling test for sugar in the urine; this reagent, known as Benedict's Solution, has been widely used throughout the world. His subsequent career indicates that he fully realized the value of quantitative as well as qualitative knowledge with respect to body constituents and their variation in health and disease.
Benedict was one of the earliest of American biochemists to foresee the importance of the analysis of blood, in addition to that of urine, in the study of metabolism and disease. Methods for the analysis of blood for such substances as glucose, uric acid, creatinine, and other metabolically and clinically important constituents had previously required either special skills or impracticably large amounts of blood and hence were unavailable to medical investigators as a routine tool. One of the earliest of the many publications from Benedict's Cornell laboratory describes the development of a simple, rapid, and accurate method for the determination of blood sugar on blood samples of two milliliters in volume or even less. This method at once found practical application in the study and control of diabetes and was the forerunner of many succeeding publications from the same laboratory dealing with quantitative blood chemistry.
Benedict's approach to the problems of quantitative biochemical analysis may best be described as that of a practical perfectionist. He was a brilliant analytical chemist with a thorough awareness of the complexity of biological material and the limitations of non-specific analytical methods. At the same time he recognized that quantitative methods were of little value unless they were usable. He early adopted the colorimeter, first introduced as an anlytical tool to American biochemists by Folin in connection with the quantitative analysis of urine, and (with a student) patented a simple and economical version of this instrument.
He constantly strove to improve his own analytical methods, as well as those proposed by others, but without sacrificing their usefulness in laboratories having limited facilities or staffed with relatively inexperienced personnel. Benedict was not interested solely in analytical biochemistry. The development of a new or improved analytical method for a particular substance was usually associated with a careful metabolic study of that substance. Thus publications from his laboratory deal with various aspects of the metabolism of carbohydrates (including phlorizin diabetes), uric acid, phenols, creatine, and creatinine. Studies on the origin of urinary ammonia led to a concept which directly contradicted views current at the time but which was subsequently substantiated and became generally accepted. Furthermore, his laboratory is credited with the discovery and isolation of two substances not previously known to be present in the blood, namely ergothioneine and a novel uric acid riboside compound.
Benedict was also interested in cancer research, as evidenced by a continuous series of publications in this field. For many years he was in charge of the cancer research program at the Memorial Hospital in New York City, and he was one of the first investigators to attempt (unsuccessfully) the modification of experimental tumor growth by metabolic approaches.
An important aspect of Benedict's contribution to the science of biological chemistry lay in his services as managing editor of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, a post he held from 1920 until his death. Since at this time, and for some years to come, the Journal was the only American vehicle for the publication of research results in this field, Benedict's views on such matters as editorial style and the adequacy of experimental evidence played an important part in shaping American biochemical literature.
Benedict died of a heart attack at his home in Elmsford, New York, after a short illness and was buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston.
Stanley Benedict was president of the American Society of Biological Chemists (1919 - 1920) and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Personality
Benedict was a tall, well-built man of imposing and dignified appearance. He was somewhat reserved on first acquaintance, but those who knew him soon found that he was kindly and friendly, with a keen sense of humor. In speech he was direct and forceful and in argument tenacious.
Connections
In 1913 Stanley Benedict married Ruth Fulton, an anthropologist who, as Ruth Benedict, acquired an outstanding professional reputation in her own right. There were no children.