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George Frederick Dick
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George Frederick Dick

American physician
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Quick Facts
Born:
July 21, 1881, Fort Wayne, Ind., U.S.
Died:
Oct. 10, 1967, Palo Alto, Calif.
Subjects Of Study:
scarlet fever
See all related content

George Frederick Dick (born July 21, 1881, Fort Wayne, Ind., U.S.—died Oct. 10, 1967, Palo Alto, Calif.) was an American physician and pathologist who, with his wife, Gladys Henry Dick, discovered the cause of, and devised means of preventing, scarlet fever.

Dick studied scarlet fever while serving in the Army Medical Corps in World War I. After the war he was professor of clinical medicine at Rush Medical College, Chicago (1918–33), and head of the department of medicine at the University of Chicago (1933–45).

In 1923 he and his wife isolated the hemolytic streptococcus bacterium that causes scarlet fever, prepared the toxin (Dick toxin) used for immunization, and devised the Dick method for prevention of the disease by toxin-antitoxin injection. In 1924 they developed the Dick skin test for susceptibility to scarlet fever.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.