Emils Last Years

Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 9, William Benton, Publisher, Chicago, 1966. 

Farber, Eduard, in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol. 5, C.C. Gillispie, Editor, Charles Sdiribners Sons, New York, 1972. 

Reingold, N., and Reingold, I.H., Science in America A Documentary Histoiy, 1900-1939, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1981. 

Harrow, Benjamin, Eminent Chemists of Our Times, 2nd Ed., D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., New York, 1927. 

The Development of Modern Chemistry, Harper and Row, New York, 1964. 

---

Our understanding of the clinical cause of schizophrenia has evolved considerably in the last 20 years. Until the 1980s, Emil Kraepelin s notion that schizophrenia is a neurodegenerative disease basically went unquestioned. What we now call schizophrenia, Kraepelin called dementia praecox, literally precocious dementia. He believed that the illness followed a progressive downhill course and culminated in dementia. It later became clear that not all schizophrenia patients follow this deteriorating course, but the neurodegenerative concept of the illness continued for years to hold sway. 

Investigations upon their chemical constitution have been carried on now for nearly a century, but it is only during the last ten years that, by the work of Emil Fischer and his pupils, any clear view has really been obtained of their actual constitution. The main result of these investigations is that the protein molecule is built up of a series of amino acids, which form the basis of their composition, and of which the following have been definitely determined —... 

Milus had a continental and rather sardonic sense of humor. In his final trip into Washington and Oregon, lecturing three hours each day, he seemed as buoyant as ever, but, when this was remarked upon, he said, wryly, After last examining me, my doctor said Heuser, I m surprised that, with your heart, you are still alive . Unfortunately, the medico s prognosis was all too accurate. On Christmas Eve of that same year, Emil Heuser died quietly in his sleep. 

Most certainly, Curtius did not intend to enter protein chemistry when he started his work on hippuric acid and glycine. In the following years he was mainly fascinated by his discovery of diazo-fatty acid esters and the multitude of their reactions and so scarcely acquired interest in peptones and albuminoids. During the last decade of the past century, however, stimulated by E. Fischer s vigorous activity, Curtius resumed his studies, by which he contributed so much to modern peptide chemistry. It is somewhat ironical that Fischer s engagement, that had an immense echo at that time left less practical application for peptide chemistry than Curtius invention of the azide coupling method. Emil Fischer s great merit is to have drawn the attention of the whole scientific world to the field of proteins, whose mystery could be revealed by application of chemical methods and to lend trust to chemists that they are able to synthesize complicated natural substances like peptides. 

Landois s observation of hemolysis (1875) induced by infusion of alien blood which 38 years later led to Landsteiner s discovery of the blood groups, and Emil Fischer s ingenious studies of carbohydrates and amino acid analysis and synthesis were other important factors which opened the door for the rapid progress in intravenous therapy during the last hundred years. 

---