Martin Henry Dawson

Martin Henry Dawson (6 August 1896 – 27 April 1945) was a Canadian-born researcher who made important contributions in the fields of infectious diseases.

Dawson was born in Truro, Nova Scotia, a grandson of John Barnhill Dickie and educated at Dalhousie University and McGill University. His research included studies on the transformation of pneumococci and on the biological variants of the and other microorganisms. Dawson's studies on the nature and treatment of arthritis made him a recognized authority in this disorder. He was a pioneer in penicillin therapy, and was the first in the world to prepare it and use it in human disease. This included the successful treatment of bacterial endocarditis with penicillin, and the use of gold salts in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

Dawson became the first person in history to stick a needle full of an antibiotic (penicillin) into a patient, on October 16, 1940.

After he had graduated Dalhousie University in Halifax with a BA in 1916 he started serving in the Canadian forces in the First World War. Pte. M. Henry Dawson was with No. 7 Stationary Hospital at La Harve, France. He became a Capt. in the Nova Scotia Reg’t of Canadian Army Medical Corps. He was wounded in 1917 and again in 1918 and was awarded the Military Cross in 1917.

Following the war Dawson attended McGill University in Quebec and received his M.D. degree in 1923. After graduating in Medicine he worked at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. In 1926 he was appointed a National Research Fellow, assigned to the Rockefeller Institute in New York.

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