THE METABOLISM OF BILIRUBIN

Abstract

A little girl was asked by her teacher to write an essay on Benjamin Franklin and to make it short. She wrote: "Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston: he married a Philadelphia lady and discovered electricity." Dr. Najjar made an independent discovery of electricity in Missouri, a gentle, even and altogether pleasing current. I shall be short in my turn. I regard my function on this occasion to be like that of a keeper whose business it is to exhibit to you a greyhound and, after demonstrating his points and recounting his exploits, to turn him loose. Victor Najjar was born in Lebanon. He graduated from the American University of Beirut in 1932. After interning in pediatrics at the American University Hospital, Beirut, 1935 to 1937, he became instructor in Public Health and Hygiene at The Rural College for Teachers, Bagdad, Iraq, and the following year pediatrician-in-charge to the Children's Clinic, Bagdad. Najjar's residence in Bagdad leads me to believe that he could tell us much about grand viziers, caliphs and harems. In 1939 he came to this country joining the pediatric staff of Johns Hopkins University. In 1944 he became Associate and in 1945 was promoted to be an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics. In 1946 he was accorded a National Research Council Fellowship and elected to the laboratory of Carl F. Cori, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, where he remained until The Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University Medical School, and the Harriet Lane Home, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. 1948.