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Born on this Day in 1911 Out of Africa
28 February 2017

Out of Africa

It was whilst working as a missionary doctor in Uganda that Denis Burkitt identified the childhood cancer that would take his name, Burkitt’s lymphoma. He spotted swellings in the lymph nodes on children’s’ jaws. This cancer begins in the white blood cells (stained purple here) that form part of our immune system. It’s the fastest growing human tumour, though today around nine in ten children can survive with treatment. Burkitt made a second, unrelated observation when in Uganda. The people he was treating lived largely on vegetables. He noted that they typically produced more faeces, and with less discomfort, than westerners and rarely suffered from diseases such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes, which are common in the western world. This led Burkitt to suggest that fibre is key to staying healthy. He said, “America is a constipated nation... If you pass small stools, you have to have large hospitals.”

Written by Deborah Oakley

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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