Murphy, William Parry (1892-1987), an American physician, helped develop the first successful treatment for a disease called pernicious anemia. Pernicious anemia had always been fatal until Murphy and his colleague George R. Minot discovered that feeding patients large quantities of liver caused the anemia to disappear. Murphy and Minot shared the 1934 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with George H. Whipple, an American medical researcher whose research laid the groundwork for the liver treatment.
Murphy was born in Stoughton, Wisconsin. He graduated from the University of Oregon in 1914 and taught high school mathematics and physics for two years in Oregon before entering the University of Oregon Medical School. He later received a fellowship to Harvard Medical School in Boston, where he received an M.D. degree in 1922.
Murphy interned at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. He returned to Boston to serve his residency at Peter Bent Brigham (now Brigham and Women’s) Hospital, where he met Minot. Minot had treated pernicious anemia patients at another Boston hospital with a liver-rich diet and asked Murphy to do the same at the Brigham. The two doctors announced the results of their study in 1926.
Murphy became Minot’s partner in a private medical practice in Boston. He also practiced medicine at the Brigham and taught at Harvard Medical School until he retired in 1958.
