The treatment for vitamin B12-deficient anemia was first devised by William Murphy, who bled dogs to make them anemic, and then fed them various substances to see what (if anything) would make them healthy again. He discovered that ingesting large amounts of liver seemed to cure the disease. George Minot and George Whipple then set about to isolate the curative substance chemically and ultimately were able to isolate the vitamin B12 from the liver. All three shared the 1934 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Normocytic
Normocytic anemia occurs when the overall hemoglobin levels are decreased, but the red blood cell size (mean corpuscular volume) remains normal. Causes include:

Dimorphic
A dimorphic appearance on a peripheral blood smear occurs when there are two simultaneous populations of red blood cells, typically of different size and hemoglobin content (this last feature affecting the color of the red blood cell on a stained peripheral blood smear). For example, a person recently transfused for iron deficiency would have small, pale, iron deficient red blood cells (RBCs) and the donor RBCs of normal size and color. Similarly, a person transfused for severe folate or vitamin B12 deficiency would have two cell populations, but, in this case, the patients RBCs would be larger and paler than the donors RBCs. A person with sideroblastic anemia (a defect in heme synthesis, commonly caused by alcoholism, but also drugs/toxins, nutritional deficiencies, a few acquired and rare congenital diseases) can have a dimorphic smear from the sideroblastic anemia alone.
Causes
The causes of anemia may be classified as impaired red blood cell (RBC) production, increased RBC destruction (hemolytic anemia), blood loss and fluid overload (hypervolemia). Several of these may interplay to cause anemia. The most common cause of anemia is blood loss, but this usually does not cause any lasting symptoms unless a relatively impaired RBC production develops, in turn, most commonly by iron deficiency. Impaired production
Disturbance of proliferation and differentiation of stem cells
Pure red cell aplasia
Aplastic anemia affects all kinds of blood cells. Fanconi anemia is a hereditary disorder or defect featuring aplastic anemia and various other abnormalities. Anemia of kidney failure due to insufficient production of the hormone erythropoietin
Anemia of endocrine disease
Disturbance of proliferation and maturation of erythroblasts
Pernicious anemia is a form of megaloblastic anemia due to vitamin B12 deficiency dependent on impaired absorption of vitamin B12. Lack of dietary B12 causes non-pernicious megaloblastic anemia. Anemia of folate deficiency, as with vitamin B12, causes megaloblastic anemia
Anemia of prematurity, by diminished erythropoietin response to declining hematocrit levels, combined with blood loss from laboratory testing, generally occurs in premature infants at two to six weeks of age. Iron deficiency anemia, resulting in deficient heme synthesis
Thalassemias, causing deficient globin synthesis
Congenital dyserythropoietic anemias, causing ineffective erythropoiesis
Anemia of kidney failure (also causing stem cell dysfunction)
Other mechanisms of impaired RBC production
Myelophthisic anemia or myelophthisis is a severe type of anemia resulting from the replacement of bone marrow by other materials, such as malignant tumors, fibrosis, or granulomas.