Ernest Lyman Scott

{{Short description|American physiologist and researcher}} {{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | name = Ernest Lyman Scott | honorific_suffix = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image =  | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|1877|8|18}}<ref name="diss."/> | birth_place = [[Kinsman, Ohio]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1966|1|19|1877|8|18}} | death_place = [[Bogota, New Jersey]] | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | other_names = | residence = | citizenship = | nationality = | fields = [[Physiology]] | workplaces = [[Columbia University]] | patrons = | education = | alma_mater = | thesis_title = The content of sugar in the blood under common laboratory conditions | thesis_url = http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/12950881 | thesis_year = 1914 | doctoral_advisor =  | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = [[Albert Baird Hastings]] | notable_students = | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | spouse =  | partner =  | children = | signature =  | signature_alt = | website =  | footnotes = }}

'''Ernest Lyman Scott''' (August 18, 1877–January 19, 1966)<ref>{{cite news |author= |date=January 20, 1966 |title=DR. ERNEST SCOTT, A PHYSIOLOGIST, 88; Ex-Columbia Teacher Who Turned to Horticulture Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1966/01/20/archives/dr-ernest-scott-a-physiologist-88-excolumbia-teacher-who-turned-to.html |work=The New York Times|location= |access-date=April 4, 2023}}</ref> was an American [[physiologist]] and [[diabetes]] researcher who spent much of his career on the faculty at [[Columbia University]]. Scott's early work contributed to the modern understanding of the biology of [[insulin]] and its use in [[diabetes management]], though the exact role and significance of his research in this context has been a subject of controversy.<ref name="stylianou">{{cite journal|last1=Stylianou|first1=C.|last2=Kelnar|first2=C.|title=The introduction of successful treatment of diabetes mellitus with insulin|journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine|date=15 July 2009|volume=102|issue=7|pages=298–303|doi=10.1258/jrsm.2009.09k035|pmc=2711201|pmid=19605862}}</ref><ref name="magner">{{cite journal|last1=Magner|first1=LN|title=Ernest Lyman Scott's work with insulin, a reappraisal.|journal=Pharmacy in History|date=1977|volume=19|issue=3|pages=103–8|pmid=11615662|jstor=41109047}}</ref> Later, Scott developed a standard blood test for diabetes. After retiring from Columbia in 1942, Scott went on to become a noted [[horticulturist]].<ref name="nlm">{{cite web|title=Ernest Lyman Scott Papers: Biographical Note|url=https://oculus.nlm.nih.gov/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=nlmfindaid;cc=nlmfindaid;view=text;rgn=main;didno=scott165|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170316204310/https://oculus.nlm.nih.gov/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=nlmfindaid;cc=nlmfindaid;view=text;rgn=main;didno=scott165|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 16, 2017|website=National Library of Medicine|accessdate=16 March 2017}}</ref><ref name="nybg">{{cite web|title=Ernest L. Scott Papers|url=http://www.nybg.org/library/finding_guide/archv/scott_ppb.html|website=New York Botanical Garden|accessdate=16 March 2017}}</ref>

==Education and academic career== Scott was born in [[Kinsman, Ohio]].<ref name="diss.">{{cite thesis |last=Scott |first=Ernest Lyman |date=1914 |title=The content of sugar in the blood under common laboratory conditions |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nnc2.ark:/13960/t15m6wv3h |type=PhD |chapter= |publisher=Columbia University |hdl=2027/nnc2.ark:/13960/t15m6wv3h |docket= |oclc= |access-date=April 4, 2023}}</ref> He attended [[Ohio Wesleyan University]] as an undergraduate and received his B.S. in 1902. He received his M.S. from the [[University of Chicago]] in 1911, working with [[Anton Carlson]], and left Chicago to begin his faculty career with a brief period teaching at the [[University of Kansas]]. In 1912 he moved to a teaching position at [[Columbia University]]. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1914 and remained on the faculty until his retirement in 1942, briefly interrupted by [[World War I]] service with the [[American Expeditionary Force]] in France.<ref name=nlm /> His tenure at Columbia included the development of blood tests for [[blood glucose]] and characterization of standards for identifying diabetes by blood test.<ref name="scott_ajp_1914">{{cite journal|last1=Scott|first1=Ernest Lyman|title=The Content of Sugar in the Blood Under Common Laboratory Conditions|journal=American Journal of Physiology|date=1 June 1914|volume=34|issue=3|pages=271–311|url=http://ajplegacy.physiology.org/content/34/3/271|doi=10.1152/ajplegacy.1914.34.3.271|hdl=2027/nnc2.ark:/13960/t15m6wv3h|s2cid=99454784 |hdl-access=free|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Among his notable graduate students is physiologist [[Albert Baird Hastings]].<ref name="nas">{{cite journal|last1=Christensen|first1=Halvor N.|title=Albert Baird Hastings|journal=National Academies Biographical Memoirs|date=1994|volume=63|page=172|url=https://www.nap.edu/read/4560/chapter/11}}</ref>

==Role in the discovery of insulin== Scott's work with Carlson at the University of Chicago subsequently became a subject of controversy over the [[scientific priority]] of significant discoveries about insulin and diabetes, which earned [[Frederick Banting]] and [[John Macleod (physiologist)|John Macleod]] the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] in 1923.<ref name="nobel">{{cite web|title=The Discovery of Insulin|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/insulin/discovery-insulin.html|website=Nobelprize.org|accessdate=16 March 2017}}</ref> Although Scott was only a master's student, he worked relatively independently in the Carlson laboratory, using [[dog]]s with surgically disrupted [[pancreas]] as [[animal model]]s to measure his efforts to isolate a hypothesized anti-diabetic "active principle" found in pancreatic secretions. Evidence from his 1911 master's thesis suggests that he did successfully isolate a [[protein]] with observable clinical benefits in his experimental diabetic dogs, which by his description must have been [[insulin]].<ref name=stylianou /><ref name=magner /> However, Scott's thesis was not published in its original form until much later, in 1966.<ref name="richards">{{cite journal|last1=Richards|first1=DW|title=The effect of pancreas extract on depancreatized dogs. Ernest L. Scott's thesis of 1911.|journal=Perspectives in Biology and Medicine|date=1966|volume=10|issue=1|pages=84–95|pmid=6002670|doi=10.1353/pbm.1966.0026|s2cid=10546542}}</ref> Instead, while departing for his new position in Kansas, Scott left his thesis with Carlson, who published a version in Scott's name in 1912 in the ''[[American Journal of Physiology]]''.<ref name="scott_ajp_1912">{{cite journal|last1=Scott|first1=Ernest Lyman|title=On the Influence of Intravenous Injections of an Extract of the Pancreas on Experimental Pancreatic Diabetes|journal=American Journal of Physiology|date=1 January 1912|volume=29|issue=3|pages=306–310|url=http://ajplegacy.physiology.org/content/29/3/306.long|accessdate=16 March 2017|doi=10.1152/ajplegacy.1912.29.3.306|doi-access=|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

In their subsequent work on insulin and diabetes, [[Frederick Banting]] and [[Charles Best (medical scientist)|Charles Best]] expanded upon the themes in Scott's work and cited the 1912 paper.<ref name=stylianou /><ref name=magner /> However, later controversy arose regarding Carlson's edits to Scott's thesis to produce the paper, which included a summary and conclusion paragraph described as "cautious" and insufficient to establish his priority in isolating insulin; in fact, writing in 1964, Scott himself denied authorship of the 1912 paper.<ref name=magner /> The award of the 1923 Nobel to Banting and Macleod attracted dispute from a variety of sources, with Banting himself objecting to Macleod's inclusion and ultimately sharing his award money with his research associate [[Charles Best (medical scientist)|Charles Best]]; Macleod sharing his with another member of the team, [[James Collip]]; and other researchers in the field, including Scott,<ref name="scott_1923">{{cite journal|last1=Scott|first1=Ernest L.|title=Priority in Discovery of a Substance Derived from the Pancreas, Active in Carbohydrate Metabolism|journal=JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association|date=13 October 1923|volume=81|issue=15|pages=1303|doi=10.1001/jama.1923.02650150057030}}</ref> contending that their role in the discovery had been overlooked and earlier work undercited.<ref name=nobel /><ref name="rosenfeld">{{cite journal|last1=Rosenfeld|first1=L|title=Insulin: discovery and controversy.|journal=Clinical Chemistry|date=December 2002|volume=48|issue=12|pages=2270–88|doi=10.1093/clinchem/48.12.2270|pmid=12446492|doi-access=free}}</ref> Scott's wife self-published a book on the subject years later called ''Great Scott: Ernest Lyman Scott's work with insulin in 1911''.<ref name="greatscott">{{cite book|last1=Scott|first1=Aleita Hopping|title=Great Scott: Ernest Lyman Scott's work with insulin in 1911|date=1972}}</ref>

==Personal life== Scott's wife Aleita Hopping Scott also held a Ph.D. in physiology and shared his interest in plants and gardening. After Ernest Scott's retirement from Columbia, the couple established a reputation as [[horticulturist]]s, extensively documenting their garden at their home in New Jersey. Ernest Scott served as the founding president of the National [[Chrysanthemum]] Society of America and Aleita co-founded the American [[Primula|Primrose]] Society.<ref name=nybg /> The couple coauthored a book on chrysanthemums.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Scott|first1=Ernest Lyman|last2=Scott|first2=Aleita Hopping|title=Chrysanthemums for Pleasure|date=March 2012|publisher=Literary Licensing, LLC |isbn=978-1258241520}}</ref>

Ernest Scott died in 1966. His papers are held by the [[National Library of Medicine]] and the [[New York Botanical Garden]].<ref name=nlm /><ref name=nybg />

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Ernest}} [[Category:American physiologists]] [[Category:Ohio Wesleyan University alumni]] [[Category:University of Chicago alumni]] [[Category:Columbia University alumni]] [[Category:Columbia University faculty]] [[Category:1877 births]] [[Category:1966 deaths]] [[Category:People from Kinsman, Ohio]]