- Jan Janský
Prof. MUDr. Jan Janský (IPA2|ˈjan ˈjanski:) (
April 3 1873 ,Prague –September 8 1921 , Černošice near Prague) was a Czech serologist, neurologist and psychiatrist. He is credited with the first classification ofblood into the four types (A, B, AB, O) of theABO blood group system .Janský studied
medicine atCharles University in Prague . From 1899 he worked in a psychiatric clinic in Prague. In 1914 he was namedprofessor . DuringWorld War I Janský served two years as a doctor at the front until a heart attack disabled him. After the war he worked as aneuropsychiatrist in a military Hospital ("Vojenská nemocnice"). He had angina pectoralis and died of ischaemic heart disease.Janský was also a proponent of voluntary
blood donation s.Classification
Through his psychiatric research, Janský tried to find a correlation between mental diseases and
blood diseases . He found no such correlation existed and published a study, "Hematologická studie u psychotiků" (1907, "Hematological study of psychotics"), in which he classified blood into four groups I, II, III, IV. At the time this discovery passed almost unnoticed. In 1921 an American medical commission acknowledged Janský's classification (over that ofKarl Landsteiner , who classified blood into only three groups; and was for this (blood types) discovery awarded theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1930). Janský's classification remains in use today. A similar classification was described by William Lorenzo Moss, except the I and IV of Moss were the opposite to that of Janský's, leading to confusion inblood transfusion until the use of A, B and O became standard.Legacy
* Frequent voluntary blood donors in
The Czech Republic are awarded with Janský medal ("Janského plaketa").References
External links
* [http://zivotopisyonline.cz/jan-jansky.php Biography (in Czech)]
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