Celebrate National Tartan Day



Little Linda Turner wore tartan
for her photo in Kindergarten!!!

(eat your heart out, Lucinda Berry Hill -
I made that rhyme up all by myself!)



  

If I were to ask you to define the word "tartan", you would most likely give me a definition such as:

(noun):  Woolen cloth with a woven pattern of straight lines of different colors and widths crossing at right angles. 

Here's a fun fact about tartan:
In the Scottish Highlands, each clan has its own pattern.  Fascinating!!!

Today we celebrate NATIONAL TARTAN DAY!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Although the name would suggest we are honoring a piece of fabric or a garment, the real meaning goes much deeper. 

It's estimated that nearly 30 million American citizens claim Scottish heritage, with the majority of these residing in Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas.

Scottish Americans are the 8th largest ethnic group in the United States.

Today we are celebrating people of Scottish and Scottish-American descent and their contributions to medicine throughout history.  Let's take just a few minutes today to mention these men of Scottish descent.  Without their valuable contributions, modern medicine would not be where it is today. 

John James Rickard Macleod (1876-1935) was a Scottish biochemist and physiologist.  Although he mainly devoted his career to diverse topics in physiology and biochemistry, he was quite interested in carbohydrate metabolism.  Have you ever heard of a little miracle called insulin?  He is noted for his role in the discovery and isolation of insulin during his tenure as a lecturer at the University of Toronto.  In 1923, he and Frederick Banting received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. 


Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist.  He is known first for the discovery of the anti-bacterial lysozyme, a natural substance found in tears and the nose that helps the body fight germs.  He is also famous for his discovery of a little wonder drug called penicillin.  It quickly became the life-saving drug of his day.  The discovery was made by accident while Fleming was on vacation.  A mold had grown and destroyed the bacteria on a Petri dish in his lab.  In 1945 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Robert Burns Woodward (1917-1979) was a Scottish-American organic chemist, considered to be the preeminent organic chemist of the twentieth century.  He made many key contributions, especially in the synthesis of complex natural products and the determination of their molecular structure. 

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1965.

So, you see, it's more than just a piece of cloth or a garment we honor today. 

Have a Happy NATIONAL TARTAN DAY!!!