Robert Graves Lecture 1969_Dr. Ian Jesse Temperly

10/09/1969 in Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, 6, Kildare Street, Dublin 2

Dr. Ian Jesse Temperly, M.D., M.R.C.P.I, M.C.Path.

The Haemopoietic Factors Associated with Megaloblastic Anaemia

It has become traditional for the incumbent of the Graves Lectureship to make some comment of the great doctor who is honoured at this time each year. In his textbook ‘Clinical Lectures on the Practice of Medicine’ published in 1864 Graves in an interesting passage on the state of academic medicine expressed anxiety at the paucity of written communications coming from the medical profession in Ireland in his day. He expressed confidence, however, that this state of affairs was perceptibly changing and that a new era would dawn on Irish medicine. It can hardly be denied that Graves himself provided the example for the birth of medical observation and research in this country and set the standard for those who followed him.

This communication presents the results of some work on vitamin B12 and folic acid. The study of these two vitamins together, by us and in other centres, has not occurred by chance. Deficiency of both vitamins leads to megaloblastic anaemia and the metabolism of each separate vitamin is interconnected in the synthesis of nucleic and amino acids.

Irish J. Med Sci., Seventh Series, Vol. 2, No. 5, May 1969

This being the ninth Graves Lecture since its beginnings in 1961.