Frederick Hopkins
Hopkins, Sir Frederick Gowland (1861–1947), an English biochemist. In 1906 he discovered that milk contains growth-promoting substances that are essential for good health. These substances, which he called “accessory food factors,” were later named vitamins. For this work he shared the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine in 1929.
Hopkins graduated from the University of London. While professor of biochemistry at Cambridge University, 1914–43, he isolated several amino acids, including glutathione, which enables living tissues to use oxygen. He also showed the connection between lactic acid and muscle contraction. He was knighted in 1925.
Hopkins' books include Newer Aspects of the Nutrition Problem (1922) and Chemistry and Life (1933).