J. F. A. Mc Manus - Military Service and Early Research

Military Service and Early Research

From 1940 to 1945, McManus served in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps. While he was stationed in England at Aldershot outside of Farnsborough at No.8 Canadian General Hospital, he met Professor J. R. Baker. It was in Baker's laboratory in the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at Oxford University, Dr. McManus developed a number of histochemical procedures including a Sudan black B procedure for demonstrating phospholipids. This work was to mark the beginning of his influence in identifying the chemistry of microscopic structure.

In 1944, he joined the allied expeditionary force in the invasion of the continent with the British Liberation Army serving in field hospitals in Belgium and Holland. Dr. Harold Taylor has pointed out that it was at this time that Joe's interest in fundamental biology became evident. Dr. Taylor happened to follow after McManus in three army hospitals, and in each he found that McManus had left a legacy: the best trained histology technicians Dr. Taylor had ever encountered. They had been painstakingly taught to use the McManus Periodic acid-Schiff stain to study normal kidneys, which led to his unique contributions on the nature of the juxtaglomerular complex.

That anecdote probably illustrates better than any other the early promise of a distinguished scientific career. Where many other physicians had found laboratory work in the army a chore, McManus had made the very best use of the available resources. Many of the principles of histochemistry had been established before the outbreak of war, but developing and applying them to the physiologic and pathologic problems were mainly a post World War II contribution to medical science.

His honorable discharge carried the rank of Major and following the war, he returned to Professor Baker's department as a Beit Memorial Fellow. It was during this fellowship in 1946, the details of the Periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) reagent method for the staining of aldehyde components of mucosubstances were delineated. The impact of this staining procedure on the study of the kidney morphology is well known. Indeed, Dr. McManus' classic monograph on Medical Diseases of the Kidney is based upon the usefulness of the method.