There are probably few who haven't heard of the famous Mayo Clinic in the United States. Ironically, there are probably equally very few who realize that the man named most responsible for establishing the research tradition at the famous clinic in Rochester, Minn., was a London-born graduate of the University of Western Ontario's medical school…Leonard G. Rowntree was born in London in 1883 to grocer George Rowntree and his wife Phoebe…In 1910, Rowntree and Dr. John T. Garaghty were the first to describe the use of chemicals for the determination of renal, or kidney, function. Known as the "Rowntree test" it became the clinical standard for the next 30 years.

London Free Press, by George Clark, 1/7/2012

Tags: History, Mayo Clinic Rochester, Research