Paul Ehrlich The Person

This zest for freedom carried through to his university studies where, for the most part, he did not attend the formal classes but preferred to read those subjects 

One wonders what direction Ehrlich s future career would have taken if he had come under the influence of von Baeyer, the chemist, rather than [Wilhelm] Waldeyer, the histologist. Ehrlich already realized that he had an instinctive talent for visualizing structural formulae in three dimensions. It was this ability to see benzene rings and their side-chains in stereoscopic view in his mind s eye that was of supreme value in his later research...Ehrlich chose medicine as a profession, but his real passions were organic chemistry and histology. 

His great passions were organic chemistry and histology, having great talent with the respect to the former in that he could visualize organic structures in three dimensions. Yet he chose medicine as a profession. 

4 Some Other Biochemical Spin-Offs from the German Dye Industry and Paul Ehrlich s Legacy 

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