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Mabel Purefoy FitzGerald
Mabel Purefoy FitzGerald
Born	Preston Candover, Hampshire, England
Died	Oxford, England
Nationality	British
	Scientific career
Fields	Physiology, Pathology

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Mabel Purefoy FitzGerald (3 August 1872-24 August 1973)^[1] was a British physiologist and clinical pathologist best known for her work on the physiology of respiration. She became the second female member of the American Physiological Society in 1913.^[2]

Early Life and Education

Mabel FitzGerald was born in 1872 in Preston Candover near Birmingham. She was educated at home, as was typical for girls in her time. In 1895, both her parents died and Mabel moved to Oxford with her sisters in 1896.^[1] She began to teach herself chemistry and biology from books, as well as attending classes at Oxford University between 1896 and 1899, even though women were not yet allowed to receive degrees. She continued her studies at the University of Copenhagen, Cambridge University and New York University.^[3]

Work

Mabel began to work with Francis Gotch at the physiology department in Oxford. Gotch also helped her get a paper published by the Royal Society in 1906.^[3]

From 1904, FitzGerald worked with John Scott Haldane on measuring the carbon dioxide tension in the human lung. After studying the differences between healthy and ill people, the two continued to investigate the effects of altitude on respiration; it is this work that they are most famous for. FitzGeralds observations of the effects of full altitude acclimatization on carbon dioxide tension and haemoglobin remain the accepted ones today.^[1]

In 1907, Mabel was awarded a Rockefeller travelling scholarship, which allowed her to work in New York and Toronto.^[3]

Later life

Mabel FitzGerald returned to the UK in 1915 to serve as a clinical pathologist at the Edinburgh infirmary, a position that was empty because of World War I. She did not publish any more papers and remained out of contact with the physiology community even after her return to Oxford in 1930.^[3]

In 1961, on the centenary of Haldane's birth, her work was rediscovered. She received an honorary MA from Oxford University in 1972, and was also made a member of The Physiological Society.^[1]

Selected Publications

FitzGerald, MP; Haldane, JS (1905). "The normal alveolar carbonic acid pressure in man" (PDF). The Journal of Physiology. 32 (5–6): 486–494. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1905.sp001095. PMC 1465735. PMID 16992788.
FitzGerald, MP (1913). "The changes in the breathing and the blood at various high altitudes" (PDF). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing Papers of a Biological Character. 203: 351–371.
FitzGerald, MP (1914). "Further observations on the changes in the breathing and the blood at various high altitudes" (PDF). Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing Papers of a Biological Character. 88 (602): 248–258.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Torrance, R. W. "FitzGerald, Mabel Purefoy (1872–1973)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
^ Appel, Toby A.; Cassidy, Marie M.; Tidball, M.Elizabeth (1987). "Women in Physiology". History of the American Physiological Society. New York: Springer. pp. 381–390. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-7576-7_14. ISBN 9781461475767.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Marilyn Ogilvie; Joy Harvey, eds. (2000). The biographical dictionary of women in science: pioneering lives from ancient times to the mid-20th century. New York: Routledge. pp. 450–451. ISBN 0415920388.

[OxfordDNB-1] Torrance, R. W. "FitzGerald, Mabel Purefoy (1872–1973)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 15 October 2013.

[2] Appel, Toby A.; Cassidy, Marie M.; Tidball, M.Elizabeth (1987). "Women in Physiology". History of the American Physiological Society. New York: Springer. pp. 381–390. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-7576-7_14. ISBN 9781461475767.

[Ogilvie2000-3] Marilyn Ogilvie; Joy Harvey, eds. (2000). The biographical dictionary of women in science: pioneering lives from ancient times to the mid-20th century. New York: Routledge. pp. 450–451. ISBN 0415920388.

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