Hopkins was awarded the 1929 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for his discovery of the growth-stimulating vitamins.” Christiaan Eijkman shared the Prize “for his discovery of the antineuritic vitamin.”
from Hopkins’ acceptance speech:
“…Who was the “discoverer” of vitamins? This question has no clear answer. So often in the development of science, a fundamental idea is foreshadowed in many quarters but has long to wait before it emerges as a basis of accepted knowledge…. The circumstances of my most enviable position here today will justify me in dealing rather with the earlier history of the subject, and I will venture in virtue of that position to put before you certain personal experiences which have no place in the proper history of the subject. They have not been, and will not be, published elsewhere…”
full text of speech: “Sir Frederick Hopkins – Nobel Lecture: The Earlier History of Vitamin Research“. Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2013.
