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.
Read more about this topic: J. F. A. Mc Manus
Famous quotes containing the words military, service, early and/or research:
“We’re in greater danger today than we were the day after Pearl Harbor. Our military is absolutely incapable of defending this country.”
—Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)
“Civilization is a process in the service of Eros, whose purpose is to combine single human individuals, and after that families, then races, peoples and nations, into one great unity, the unity of mankind. Why this has to happen, we do not know; the work of Eros is precisely this.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
“I could be, I discovered, by turns stern, loving, wise, silly, youthful, aged, racial, universal, indulgent, strict, with a remarkably easy and often cunning detachment ... various ways that an adult, spurred by guilt, by annoyance, by condescension, by loneliness, deals with the prerogatives of power and love.”
—Gerald Early (20th century)
“Men talk, but rarely about anything personal. Recent research on friendship ... has shown that male relationships are based on shared activities: men tend to do things together rather than simply be together.... Female friendships, particularly close friendships, are usually based on self-disclosure, or on talking about intimate aspects of their lives.”
—Bettina Arndt (20th century)