Saul Adler

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

FRS (; May 17, 1895 – January 25, 1966) was an Israeli expert on

parasitology Parasitology is the study of parasites, their host (biology), hosts, and the relationship between them. As a List of biology disciplines, biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in questio ...

Early life

Adler was born in 1895 in Kerelits ( Karelichy), then in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, now in

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

. In 1900, he and his family moved to England and they settled in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

. He studied at

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

and the

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) is a post-graduate teaching and research institution based in Liverpool, England, established in 1898. It was the first institution in the world dedicated to the study of tropical medicine. LSTM ...

. One of his brothers was Solomon Adler, the economist.

Career

From 1917 until 1920, Adler served in the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) was a specialist corps in the British Army which provided medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. On 15 November 2024, the corps was amalgamated with the Royal Army De ...

, attaining the rank of captain, serving in the Middle East, where he developed his first taste into research into

tropical medicine Tropical medicine is an interdisciplinary branch of medicine that deals with health issues that occur uniquely, are more widespread, or are more difficult to control in tropical and subtropical regions. Physicians in this field diagnose and tr ...

, which he commenced studying after his military service, initially in Liverpool. In 1921, Adler went to

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

to conduct research into Malaria. In 1924,

Chaim Weizmann Chaim Azriel Weizmann ( ; 27 November 1874 – 9 November 1952) was a Russian-born Israeli statesman, biochemist, and Zionist leader who served as president of the World Zionist Organization, Zionist Organization and later as the first pre ...

offered him a job in Jerusalem to develop the new Institute of Microbiology. Later that year, he emigrated to

Mandate Palestine The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordanwhich had been part of the Ottoman Empire for four centuriesfollowing the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in Wo ...

and started working in Hadassah Hospital, becoming director of the department of parasitology in 1927. In 1924, he became Assistant Professor of the Department of Parasitology at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

, serving as Professor from 1928 to 1955. In 1930, in conjunction with

Israel Aharoni Israel Aharoni (; 1882–1946) was a zoologist in Ottoman and British Palestine widely known as the "first Hebrew zoologist." Aharoni is best known for collecting a litter of Syrian hamsters on an expedition to Aleppo, Syria. The hamsters we ...

, Adler had three Syrian

hamster Hamsters are rodents (order Rodentia) belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae, which contains 19 species classified in seven genera. They have become established as popular small pets. The best-known species of hamster is the golden or Syrian ...

s brought back from

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

and successfully bred them as laboratory animals. This led to the domestication of the Syrian hamster. In the 1940s he was a leader in developing a leishmaniasis vaccine using live parasites, a practice widespread in Israel and Russia until the 1980s, when large-scale clinical trials showed that the practice led to long-term skin lesions, exacerbation of psoriasis, and immunosuppression in some people.

Education

* University of Leeds, MB, ChB, Leeds, 1917; * Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, DTM, Liverpool, 1920; * MRCP 1937; * FRCP 1958.

Honours

* In 1933, Chalmers Medal of the

Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, more commonly known by its acronym RSTMH, was founded in 1907 by Sir James Cantlie and George Carmichael Low. Sir Patrick Manson, the Society's first President (1907–1909), was recognised as ...

(London). * In 1944, elected Chairman of Free Faculty of Medicine of the

. * In 1947, received

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) * In 1957, awarded the

Israel Prize The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...

, for medicine. * In 1957, elected

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

(London). He was the first Israeli citizen to be elected. * In 1965, awarded

Honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

from the

. * In 1966, received the Solomon Bublick Award of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. * Awarded the Order of the Phoenix, (

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

). * He also received the Tchernichovsky Prize for exemplary translation, for his translation of ''

The Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life'')The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by M ...

'' by

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

Achievements

*He helped find the cure for malaria. *A street in Jerusalem is named after him. *A room in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was built in his honour. *His portrait appeared on a stamp in Israel in 1995. *He proposed that Charles Darwin's 'mystery illness' was Chagas Disease (American trypanosomiasis). Although this diagnosis has now been disproved, this proposal did much to excite interest in Darwin's chronic ill health.

Death

Saul Adler died in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

on 25 January 1966. His funeral was attended by the President of Israel.

Published works

* In 1925, he published ''Sand Flies to Man'', a book on the Transmission of Leishmaniasis. * In 1960, he translated Charles Darwin's ''The Origin of Species'' into Hebrew.

References

External links

* Eva Telkes
Dictionnaire biographique de la première génération de professeurs de l’Université hébraïque de Jérusalem

''Bulletin du Centre de recherche français de Jérusalem'' 2.1998 (Sample entry: "Shaul" Adler). {{DEFAULTSORT:Adler, Saul 1895 births 1966 deaths British emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Medical doctors from Leeds English people of Belarusian-Jewish descent Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Fellows of the Royal Society Israel Prize in medicine recipients Officers of the Order of the British Empire Recipients of the Order of the Phoenix (Greece) Israeli Jews Jewish British scientists Jews from Mandatory Palestine People from Karelichy Royal Army Medical Corps officers Jewish physicians Israeli microbiologists Jewish biologists Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United Kingdom Members of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities 20th-century Russian Jews Solomon Bublick Award recipients British Army personnel of World War I Alumni of the University of Leeds Burials at Har HaMenuchot Weizmann Prize recipients Immigrants of the Fourth Aliyah