John Jacob Abel reinterpreted: Prophet or fraud?

SUMMARY: Commentators often portray John Jacob Abel (1857–1938) as the father of American pharmacology and the inventor of the artificial kidney machine. In this paper, I outline his career and examine the background to his experiments in ‘vividiffusion’ (dialysis in vivo) as a prelude to re‐examining the published details of his experiments. I then compare the text of his medical publications on the subject with contemporary reports that appeared in the lay press and with the data contained in his laboratory note‐books. I cite evidence that Abel's private aims differed markedly from his public claims, examine why he abandoned dialysis in favour of ‘plasmaphaeresis’ for the treatment of uraemia, and mention some unfortunate consequences of that change. Finally, I examine the background to Abel's explanation that the unavailability of hirudin caused him to discontinue dialysis experiments, and raise the possibility that this provided him with a convenient method of escape from a field that threatened his reputation. I conclude that Abel's experiments with dialysis in vivo were not designed to control renal failure, but rather to isolate new hormones from the blood.