EMMANUEL CIPRIAN AMOROSO

 

A MASTER OF MEDICINE

 

By Michael Anthony

People of the Century

Express

August 9, 2000

Pages 38, 39

 

A young boy, born in Port of Spain at the very start of the 20^th century; a boy who showed nothing remarkable in his early years, and who went to St Mary's College mainly because his parents could have afforded it; this person was in time to have his name become a household word - not in the noisy and garish bazaars of life, but in one of the select and most important fields of human knowledge.

 

This young boy was Emmanuel Ciprian Amoroso, and Ciprian was born in the Port of Spain district of Woodbrook, on September 16, 1901.  He entered St Mary's College in January 1913, and left when he completed his five-year term there, in December 1918.

 

That was the time when students would normally have taken their Cambridge examinations and afterwards Higher School Certificate examinations.  But not Ciprian.

 

During his college years he was harassed by poor eyesight and once had to abandon his studies because of this.  But he recovered enough to resume, and to finish normally.

 

When he had recovered his eyesight, he represented St Mary's College at football, and on leaving the college, he played for Maple.  He was probably hoping to make a career out of football, but his parents would have none of it.  They felt if his eyesight was recovered he could very well go to study abroad - perhaps t do medicine.

 

Medicine?  Were they not guilty of being optimistic?

 

The year was 1922 when the young Ciprian Amoroso was sent to University College, Dublin, to being his studies, and what was remarkable about this period was that he began to show outstanding academic ability.  For he took all the prizes offered to students of his grade, and he went on, in 1926, to graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree.

 

Three years later, in 1929, he emerged with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, first-class honours.  His old companions at St Mary's College must have been shocked to hear of his progress!

 

In fact, even before this period, while still an undergraduate, he became so versed in the study of Anatomy that he was asked to help in the teaching of that subject.

 

But this was only for a short time.  On qualifying in Medicine and Surgery Ciprian Amoroso went to London, where he practised for two years and seemed to hate every moment of it.  Several years later he confided to a friend: "I could not stand the cliqueishness of doctors."

 

And so he must have considered it a relief when, furthering his study at London University, he was awarded a traveling fellowship.

 

This fellowship came from the National University of Ireland and enabled him to travel to continental Europe.  Almost at the same time, because of his brilliant work at London University, he was awarded the McArdle Medal for Surgery.

 

With the traveling fellowship, Ciprian Amoroso went to Berlin, where he enrolled at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for cell research, and chose a his specific field, the study of cancer.  Then he went to the University of Frieberg - also in Germany - and under the celebrated Professor Hans, he completed his first doctorate in 1930.

 

The 29-year-old doctor fell in love with Germany, but the rumble of political events, which were to bring Adolf Hitler to power, caused him to retreat to London.  (It was fine judgment for when Hitler seized the leadership in 1933, many international students were trapped, some never to be seen again).

 

HIS DISCOVERIES CHANGED THE WORLD OF MEDICINE

                                                                         

People of the Century

By Michael Anthony

Emmanuel Ciprian Amoroso

Part II

Express

August 16, 2000

Page 55

 

In 1934, Amoroso was appointed Senior Assistant in charge of Histology and Embryology at the Royal Veterinary College in London.

 

His previous work in Germany in the study of the structure and function of the cell had developed into a quest towards the understanding of annurial organisms.  This led to several books and papers by him, which have enriched research in the subject and proved a great help to young scientists in the field.

 

He wrote on the subject of germ cells, on the eggs of animals and birds, the organs of pregnancy, the glands of internal secretion, and of the reproductive behaviour of certain animals.  He also contributed greatly to the study of the physiology of respiration.

 

When World War II broke out in September 1939, the Royal Veterinary College was moved to Reading, Berkshire, some 20 miles South-East of London, to avoid the bombs.

 

Amoroso was to be found there working all day and sometimes until the early morning hours, carrying out research.  He often slept at the nearby University of Reading in a small hut that was his laboratory.

 

It was perhaps in recognition of his fortitude during those years, and of his already great stature, that in 1947 he was appointed to the Chair of Veterinary Physiology at the Royal Veterinary College - a post he held until his retirement in 1968.  He is said to have created during his tenure there the finest department of Veterinary Physiology in England.  From 1962 to 1967 he had also been in charge of Anatomy at the Royal Veterinary College.

 

In 1950 Amoroso was made Visiting Professor at Washington University, St Louis, in the United States, and later he had the same honour at the Free University of Berlin.  During 1953 and 1954 he delivered at Cornell University a series of lectures known as the Goldwyn Smith lectures.

 

At this point in his career, the National University of Ireland conferred an honorary doctorate upon him, but in 1957 came the highest honour of all: the Fellowship of the Royal Society of England.  Few scientists have gained admission to this body.

 

Dr. Emmanuel Ciprian Amoroso continued his great work and the discovery, which has crowned his life and research, and is the inspiration of this present tribute is here outlined.  These are his findings concerning the extraordinary relationship, within the body of the human female, between the placenta (or after-birth) and the womb.

 

By this study Amoroso clarified the old phenomenon of Placentation, which shows how the womb comes to terms with what, for all practical purposes, is a foreign body.  This was the crucial matter, which gave life to the study of modern Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

 

In 1959 Amoroso received the highest honour of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons when he was made an honourary associate member of that college, and following a fellowship from the college in 1960, he received, in 1966, the award of Fellow of the College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.  In 1968 he was made a Fellow of the University College of London, and in the same year he became Professor Emeritus of Veterinary Physiology of the University of London.

 

In 1969 the British Government conferred upon him the award of "Commander of the Order of the British Empire" (CBE), and later he went to Australia and received fresh honours.

 

But this figure who distinguished our 20^th century must have cherished most the award the Government of Trinidad and Tobago conferred upon him.  In 1976 he received the Trinity Cross, and he said on the occasion that this award was worth to him all that he had already possessed.

 

But in fact it could hardly equal the honour that Emmanuel Ciprian Amoroso brought to Trinidad and Tobago.  True, it came as a shock to him, for when he had slinked away from these shores in 1922 he had never expected to be heard of again.

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