Adolf Mayer (agronomist)

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Adolf Mayer in 1875 when he was appointed associate professor

Adolf Eduard Mayer (born August 9, 1843 in Oldenburg (Oldb) , † December 25, 1942 in Heidelberg ) was a German agricultural chemist. He is considered one of the pioneers in virology.

Life

Adolf Mayer was born in Oldenburg in 1843 as the first son of high school teacher Karl August Mayer (1808-1894). His mother Luise Julie was the daughter of the chemist Leopold Gmelin . Mayer first attended the lyceum in Mannheim . Since he was already very interested in the natural sciences in his youth , he later switched to the high school in Mannheim and graduated in 1860. From 1860 to 1862 he studied mathematics and chemistry (among others with Karl Weltzien ) at the Technical University in Karlsruhe. In 1862 he enrolled at the University of Heidelberg , where he received his doctorate summa cum laude in chemistry, physics and mathematics in 1864 .

First studies

After stints in Gent (6 months in 1864 with August Kekulé ) and experience in chemical factories in Belgium , Mayer returned to Germany. There he worked from 1865 to 1866 as an assistant at the University of Halle , where he dealt with agricultural studies under the influence of the well-known agricultural scientist Julius Kühn . From 1867 to 1868 he was an assistant at the Agricultural Research Station in Karlsruhe . Here he researched the "production of organic plant matter when light rays are excluded" .

Return to Heidelberg

In 1869 he completed his habilitation in Heidelberg on the subject of "Investigations into alcoholic fermentation, the substance requirements and metabolism of the yeast plant" . Reviewers for this work included the botanist Wilhelm Hofmeister and the chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen . In 1872 he married Johanna Maria Sofie Kolligs (1853–1938) in Heidelberg, with whom he had four children. After completing his habilitation, Mayer first worked as a private lecturer at the University of Heidelberg. It was not until 1875 that he was appointed professor. During this time in Heidelberg, the focus was on Mayer's work. In 1869 Mayer had published his work on "The fertilizer capital and the overexploitation" . This refuted Justus von Liebig's robbery theory and brought Mayer a lot of resentment in parts of the chemists' circles of the time. In addition, Mayer wrote his main work "Textbook of Agricultural Chemistry" during this time , which represented a basic work for the entire sector.

Work in the Netherlands

After a few years in Heidelberg, Mayer went to the Agricultural University in Wageningen , Netherlands, as a teacher for agricultural chemistry and agricultural technology in 1876 . In 1877 Mayer became director of the state research station that had recently been founded, at which he mainly did pioneering work on the tobacco mosaic disease from 1882 to 1886 . In 1886 he was appointed a member of the State Commission for the Study of the State of Agriculture in the Netherlands .

Tobacco mosaic disease

In the middle of the 19th century, a plant disease spread in the Netherlands, which led to a mottled black and light pattern on plant leaves and to crop failures in Dutch tobacco growing . Mayer was made aware of this disease by the local farmers in 1879 and from then on devoted himself to this phenomenon. In the Gronings Tijdschrift voor Landbouwkunde Mayer named the discoloration for the first time in 1882 as tobacco mosaic disease . Tobacco mosaic disease is caused by a virus . Viruses were completely unknown at the time, however, and Mayer pioneered their research. He examined the affected plants, but could not find any fungi or bacteria in the filtrates . Due to the small size of viruses, they were simply not visible to Mayer in the light microscopes of the time . Mayer prepared a filtrate of the sap and injected it into healthy tobacco plants . These then also showed the symptoms of the disease. He concluded that it was not a hereditary disease and that the causative agent of the disease must be in the filtrate. Mayer had unwittingly carried out the first viral transmission with this experiment. However, Mayer came to the wrong conclusion: he blamed small bacteria for the disease.

In the following years, Dmitri Iossifowitsch Iwanowski and Mayer's former colleague Martinus Willem Beijerinck dealt more intensively with the pathogen. Among other things, Beijerinck discovered that the pathogen could be ultrafiltered. It was not until 1935 that the virus could be isolated and crystallized.

Last years and work

Adolf Mayer and his wife Sophie Mayer geb. Kolligs share the tomb with Mayer's grandparents Leopold and Luise Gmelin

After his retirement in 1903, Mayer returned to Heidelberg. In addition to scientific publications, he published numerous works with economic and philosophical content, especially during this time (sometimes under the pseudonym Eduard Maydolf). Altogether he has over 220 publications. Mayer died on December 25, 1942 in Heidelberg at the age of 99.

Honors

Works (selection)

  • The fertilizer capital and overexploitation: an economic view on a scientific basis , Heidelberg, 1869 ( digitized and full text in the German text archive , digitized )
  • Agricultural chemistry textbook in forty lectures, 2 volumes , Heidelberg, 1871
  • Capitalism in the learned world . In: Collection of lectures for the German people, VI, 7. Heidelberg, 1881 ( digitized and full text in the German text archive )
  • The doctrine of chemical ferments or enzymology , Heidelberg, 1882
  • On the mosaic disease of tobacco. The agricultural experimental stations 32, 451-467 , 1886

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Adolf Mayer  - Sources and full texts