Archibald Byron Macallum (April 7, 1858 – April 5, 1934) was a Canadian biochemist and founder of the

National Research Council of Canada The National Research Council Canada (NRC; ) is the primary national agency of the Government of Canada dedicated to science and technology research and development. It is the largest federal research and development organization in Canada. Th ...

. He was an influential figure in the development of Medical School of Toronto from a provincial school to a major institution. His scientific work centred on studies of ionic composition of cells and of blood.

Education and academic career

Macallum was born in Belmont,

Canada West The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in British North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report ...

, the son of a Scottish immigrant and one of twelve children. He grew up speaking

Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

at home, learning English at school. He attended high school in

London, Ontario London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River (Ontario), Thames River and N ...

and became a teacher after graduation. After saving money for several years he entered the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

. There he was influenced by biology professor Ramsay Wright; at 22 he earned a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(B.A.) degree and was awarded the medal in natural science. Over the next several years, he taught high school in

Cornwall, Ontario Cornwall is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, situated where the provinces of Central Canada, Ontario and Quebec and the U.S. state of New York (state), New York converge. It is Ontario's easternmost city. Although it is the seat of the United ...

and continued scientific work under Wright's direction. In 1883, he became a lecturer in biology at the University of Toronto and started work on a medical degree, studying both with Wright and with H. Newell Martin of

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

. In 1888 he earned a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins, and two years later completed a medical degree from the University of Toronto; he then became the first chair of

physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

at Toronto. In his first years as physiology chair at the University of Toronto, Macallum and several other biologists trained by Wright (

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

chair James McMurrich and pathology professor J. J. Mackenzie) fought to replace the Toronto medical school's traditional medical education with a curriculum based on biological science. They had largely succeeded in this by 1908, when Macallum became Chair of Biochemistry, a newly created position. In 1917, he left academia to organize the National Research Council. In 1920 he returned to chair the new Department of Biochemistry at

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

, where he stayed until retirement in 1928. Macallum was an elected International Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

and an International Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

Scientific work

Most of Macallum's scientific work involved measurements of small concentrations of salts and

ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...

s in biological fluids. In 1901, he showed that the

chromatin Chromatin is a complex of DNA and protein found in eukaryote, eukaryotic cells. The primary function is to package long DNA molecules into more compact, denser structures. This prevents the strands from becoming tangled and also plays important r ...

in cell nuclei contains

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

, and in his early years at the University of Toronto he adapted measurement methods for a number of ions (

chloride The term chloride refers to a compound or molecule that contains either a chlorine anion (), which is a negatively charged chlorine atom, or a non-charged chlorine atom covalently bonded to the rest of the molecule by a single bond (). The pr ...

potassium Potassium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol K (from Neo-Latin ) and atomic number19. It is a silvery white metal that is soft enough to easily cut with a knife. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmospheric oxygen to ...

and

phosphate Phosphates are the naturally occurring form of the element phosphorus. In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthop ...

) for use with tissue and

cell Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life * Cellphone, a phone connected to a cellular network * Clandestine cell, a penetration-resistant form of a secret or outlawed organization * Electrochemical cell, a de ...

samples. Using these methods, he found that some chemicals are localized within cells, e.g., being present in the

cytoplasm The cytoplasm describes all the material within a eukaryotic or prokaryotic cell, enclosed by the cell membrane, including the organelles and excluding the nucleus in eukaryotic cells. The material inside the nucleus of a eukaryotic cell a ...

but not the

nucleus Nucleus (: nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to: *Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom *Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA Nucleu ...

. In 1906, he was recognized for this work by election to the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. Building on his ion measurement work, Macallum's subsequent long-term research focused on the ionic content of

blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood is com ...

and other biological fluids. He found that in many animals, ions of

sodium Sodium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Na (from Neo-Latin ) and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 element, group 1 of the peri ...

calcium Calcium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar to it ...

and

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 ...

occur in close proportion to the ionic content of

seawater Seawater, or sea water, is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/L, 35 ppt, 600 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one liter by volume) of seawater has approximat ...

, providing a strong argument for the marine origins of land vertebrates. Macallum argued that the vertebrate blood, with a total ion concentration of about one-third of seawater, indicates that vertebrates left the sea in the

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 23.5 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the third and shortest period of t ...

period or before, when the ion concentration of the sea was much lower. Macallum's series of experiments and arguments became a central part of the broader field of biochemical evolution in the first half of the 20th century, which attempted to apply biochemical work to problems in evolution and general biology. Macallum trained many biochemists during his time at the University of Toronto, including the university's first PhD candidate, F. H. Scott;

Maud Menten Maud Leonora Menten (March 20, 1879 – July 17, 1960) was a Canadian physician and chemist. As a bio-medical and medical researcher, she made significant contributions to enzyme kinetics and histochemistry, and invented a procedure that rem ...

, Clara Benson, and

James Collip James Bertram Collip (November 20, 1892 – June 19, 1965) was a Canadian biochemist who was part of the Toronto group which isolated insulin. He served as the chair of the department of biochemistry at McGill University from 1928 to 1941 an ...

Notes

References

* * *

External links

Macallum, Archibald Byron
- ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''
Archibald Byron Macallum archival papers
held at th
University of Toronto Archives and Research Services
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macallum, Archibald 1858 births 1934 deaths Canadian biochemists Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Academic staff of McGill University University of Toronto alumni Academic staff of the University of Toronto Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) International members of the American Philosophical Society