11 Facts About Edward Mellanby

Sir Edward Mellanby was a British biochemist and nutritionist who discovered vitamin D and its role in preventing rickets in 1919.

Edward Mellanby served as a lecturer at King's College for Women in London from 1913 to 1920, during which time he was asked to investigate the cause of rickets.

Edward Mellanby discovered that feeding caged dogs on a diet of porridge induced rickets, which could then be cured with cod liver oil and concluded that rickets was caused by a dietary factor.

Edward Mellanby worked on the detrimental effect of foods containing significant phytic acid, particularly cereals.

Edward Mellanby then served as the secretary of the Medical Research Council from 1933 to 1949.

Edward Mellanby was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1925.

Edward Mellanby was awarded their Royal Medal in 1932 and their Buchanan Medal in 1947.

Edward Mellanby delivered the Croonian Lecture to the Royal College of Physicians in 1933 and the Croonian lecture to the Royal Society in 1943, both on the subject of diet.

Edward Mellanby was knighted in the 1937 Coronation Honours and made GBE in the 1948 New Year Honours.

Edward Mellanby was appointed an Honorary Physician to the King in 1937.

Edward Mellanby delivered the Harveian Oration to the Royal College of Physicians in 1938.