Axel Holst

Axel Holst (September 6, 1860 in Christiania (present day Oslo) – 1931 in Oslo) was a Norwegian professor of hygiene and bacteriology at the University of Oslo, known for his contributions to beriberi and scurvy.

Holst gained his medical degree in 1884 and gained his doctors degree in 1892 involving the bacterium streptococcus, both at the Regal Frederiks College. He held his position as professor of hygiene and bacteriology (1893-1921) and held this title, among others until his retirement in 1930.

Along with Theodor Frølich, Holst suspected a nutritional deficiency for scurvy, and established an animal model that allowed systematic study of factors that led to disease as well as the preventive value of different substances. After substituting pigeons for a guinea pig as the experimental animal for these studies was a lucky coincidence, as the guinea pig has been shown to be among the very few mammals capable of showing scurvy-like symptoms. This occurred when a diet fed consisting of various types of grain either whole or baked into bread, and these symptoms were prevented when the diet was supplemented with known antiscorbutics like fresh cabbage or lemon juice. Their findings were published in 1907 in the Journal of Hygiene, but was unpopular with the scientific community as the concepts of nutritional deficiencies was unheard of at the time. Throughout his career Holst made many other contributions, writing out numerous medical books and articles related to sanitation, health and practical hygine.