Georg Carl Ludwig Sigwart

Georg Carl Ludwig Sigwart (born October 28, 1784 in Tübingen ; † March 29, 1864 in Tübingen) was a German biochemist (clinical chemistry), doctor and botanist.

biography

Sigwart's father was a professor of medicine in Tübingen . The grandfather Georg Friedrich Sigwart (1753–1795), also a professor of medicine, was the personal physician of Duke Karl Eugen von Württemberg . From 1800 to 1806 Sigwart studied natural sciences (medicine, physics, chemistry, botany) and mathematics in Tübingen. In 1808 he received his doctorate with an experimental thesis on the Herbstzeitlose under Gottfried Ploucquet (1744-1814). Other teachers and scientists of importance for his career were: Carl Friedrich Kielmeyer (1765–1844), Adolph Ferdinand Gehlen (1775–1815) and Johann Christian Reil (1759–1813). In addition to his interest in science, Sigwart had an extraordinary gift for languages. In 1808 Sigwart went to Munich to Gehlen with financial support from a Württemberg fund . He worked there on his "Journal for Chemistry, Physics and Medicine". Following a call from Reil to Halle (Saale) , after only one trial lecture in Halle, he went to Berlin in 1810 , where Reil had meanwhile been appointed. Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835) was able to win Reil over to the Berlin University , where from 1810 Reil became the first professor of therapy and anatomy and director of the medical clinic. Sigwart now became Reil's assistant and worked in a well-equipped chemical laboratory (including galvanic battery , Papin pot , eudiometer , pneumatic tub ). In addition to the clinical-chemical laboratory, Reil had attached Sigwart to his clinic, a department for anatomical examinations headed by Johann Friedrich Meckel (1781–1833), thus giving important impetus to the connection between clinic and paraclinic . Sigwart became known to well-known scientists, such as Martin Heinrich Klaprot (1743–1817), Sigismund Friedrich Hermbstädt (1760–1833), Christian Samuel Weiß (1780–1856), Lorenz Oken (1779–1851), Henrich Steffens (1773–1845) . In the winter of 1812/13 the lecture halls were closed due to the Wars of Liberation . Sigwart was able to leave Berlin through the mediation of a friend in the wake of Karl Freiherrn vom Stein zum Altenstein, who had been dismissed as finance minister and appointed civil governor of Silesia . After a time in Breslau , he returned to Tübingen via Bohemia . There he returned to the university as a private lecturer in chemistry and botany and as Kielmeyer's assistant. Sigwart became an associate professor of medicinal science in 1818, and in 1859 an associate professor, 1st class. He married Luise Friederike Burk in 1821, the marriage remained childless.

Scientific achievements

Munich period (1808–1810)

Sigwart carried out experiments on refraction of light and on the electrochemical series of voltages . He translated a treatise by Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778–1850) and dealt critically with it, covering a.o. a. Violates Gay-Lussac's priority rights of other researchers. In the Journal Gehlens he reviewed scientific publications in English and French journals in a separate section .

Berlin period (1810–1812 / 13)

Sigwart's lectures at the Philosophical Faculty as a private lecturer dealt with the “Chemistry of Organic Bodies”, “Chemical Analysis of Blood” and “Chemical Analysis of the Human Body”. Like the Reilsche Clinic, the clinical-chemical laboratory was located in Berlin's Friedrichstrasse 101, later 103; this spatial proximity enabled the patient's material to be examined directly. Sigwart continued to work as a translator, he translated a lecture by the famous chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius (1779–1848) from English into German, where he also criticized Berzelius' textbook on animal chemistry. On this occasion, Sigwart innovatively anticipates a division of physiological chemistry into descriptive and dynamic biochemistry (Sigwart did not yet use the term biochemistry, it only found its way into literature in the middle of the 19th century). When considering the effects of drugs in the human organism, he pointed out the importance of the interplay between chemical substances, organs and body fluids, so that beginnings of a pharmacodynamic understanding are already recognizable. Physiological chemistry , pathobiochemistry and pharmacology should be viewed in their context and holistically from clinical chemistry. Sigwart took this standardization inadmissibly far, however, because he drew conclusions from pathological conditions to fundamental physiological processes (cf. Thomas Müller).

Investigations into the composition of the blood were of central importance for Sigwart. For the first time he quantitatively recorded the proportions of solid and liquid components (blood placenta or blood cake and blood fluid ) and tried to interpret it. The centrifugation of blood to separate the cellular and serous compartments was not described until 1852. He recorded the fibrous matter in the blood quantitatively ( fibrin was still unknown). Another object of investigation was whether there were differences in blood type, sex and age. He determined the relative constancy of the blood composition in an individual regardless of the portioning and the extraction point. Further merits lie in the description of blood pigments , which were later identified as hemoglobin , verdoglobin and bilirubin . He probably described cholesterol in the blood for the first time without being able to identify the substance.

It is questionable whether the findings on the composition of gallstones and urinary stones assigned to Sigwart can actually be traced back to him. The corresponding work: “On the origin and nature of animal concrements, but especially of gallstones. Reils Archiv für die Physiologie 11 (1812), 237-262 “was written by the physician Moritz Adolph Mosovius, probably of Jewish descent from Königsberg , as an inaugural dissertation in Berlin and still printed in 1812 as a monograph in Halle. There are no references to Sigwart in these published versions. Only a few of the test material (around 200 gallstones and urinary bladder stones, which could only be obtained through spontaneous discharge or post-mortem ) could have come from the Reilsche Clinic itself. Because of the time of origin (1812) and the place of origin (Berlin) as well as the diction , support or participation of Sigwart is not excluded. In this work cholesterol (not yet named that way) and bilirubin in gallstones are described. In addition, clinical references to the occurrence of gallstones (preferred in women, obesity , old age) are made and a fresh vegetable diet is recommended for disease prevention .

Tübingen period (from 1813)

Hohentübingen Castle Laboratory, around 1870, one of the earliest biochemical laboratories

After the involuntary end of Berlin's activities forced by the wars of liberation, and the loss of influential sponsors and friends (Kielmeyer left the University of Tübingen, Reil had died of typhus), essential support for the continuation of Sigwart's clinical-chemical research was missing. The scientist, modest and cautious by his nature, did not succeed in soliciting the necessary ideal and material support for his projects. In letters to King Wilhelm I of Württemberg , he had to beg twice for an increase in his salary, as the salary was insufficient to finance the living costs and the purchase of equipment and materials for the laboratory. The planned drafting of a separate teaching of zoochemistry was omitted. He has lectured on both animal and general chemistry, pharmaceutical , forensic and medicinal chemistry. From 1816 to 1827 he was assistant to Christian Gottlob Gmelin (1792–1860), who was oriented towards inorganic chemistry, but with whom there was some friction. In 1845 Sigwart applied for a physiological and chemical extraordinary , which was eventually given to Julius Eugen Schloßberger (1819–1860), whose better relationships are said to have helped. The Hohentübingen Castle, which was transferred to the university in 1816 , with its former castle kitchen, provided the space for Sigwart's laboratory work, which due to circumstances only had to focus on agrochemicals . After the death of Gustav Schübler (1787–1834) Sigwart took over the lectures on agriculture and technical chemistry. He also received the instruments of the agronomic institute and the funds associated with the institute and was later able to set up his own humble laboratory. The following publications dealt with extensive chemical investigations of mineral waters in Württemberg . Botany remained a great passion until the end of his life, Sigwart was still writing a botanical directory at an advanced age and translated a multi-volume handbook of garden art.

Appreciation

Current permanent exhibition "Tübingen Castle Laboratory. Cradle of Biochemistry", Museum of the University of Tübingen MUT

Under the influence of Reil, Sigwart distanced himself from the predominant natural philosophy in medicine with critical observation of physiological phenomena and the use of experiments . In just two years from 1810 to 1812/13, he became a pioneer in clinical chemistry in Germany. Romanticizing medicine was abandoned in Reil's clinic at Berlin University and a new era was ushered in with routine laboratory tests on inpatients. However, this development broke off with the early death of Reil in 1813 and the political turmoil in the Revolutionary Wars. Nevertheless, clinical chemistry was pioneered here in research, teaching and clinical practice as a burgeoning independent scientific discipline. Unfortunately, due to the inadequate material possibilities, the political developments, the death and departure of sponsors and friends, Sigwart's ambitions to continue clinical-chemical research could not be realized. Nonetheless, his years in Tübingen were also characterized by intensive academic teaching, chemical, botanical and food chemistry research as well as translation work. Sigwart had worked as a translator of English, French and Italian scripts, predominantly of botanical and chemical content, from a young age to old age. Sigwart was politically and scientifically ineffective. In 1853 he led the negotiations of the Section for Botany, Agriculture and Forestry of the 30th Assembly of German Naturalists and Doctors in Tübingen, which was to be seen as an indication of his scientific reputation, which was also well recognized beyond the region. Together with other Tübingen professors, Sigwart supported Ludwig Uhland's (1787–1862) petition for diplomatic support for the Polish uprising of 1830/31 against Russian rule.

In 2015, the museum room "Castle Laboratory Tübingen: Cradle of Biochemistry" was set up in the premises of the former kitchen of Hohentübingen Castle by the Museum of the University of Tübingen MUT . His main theme is the establishment of one of the world's first (1818) biochemical laboratories at this location.

Publications

• Some observations about the behavior of the autumn crocus towards the blue plant pigments, which indicate acid and its opposite . Tübingen 1808.
• About the refraction through simple and compound bodies. In: Gehlen's Journal for Chemistry, Physics and Mineralogy. 9, 1810, pp. 415-425.
• Comments on Gay-Lussac's treatise on the relationship between the oxidation of metals and their saturation capacity for acids. In: Gehlen's Journal for Chemistry, Physics and Mineralogy. 9, 1810, pp. 480-483.
• About Berthollet's chemical mass. In: Schweiggers Journal for Chemistry and Physics. 1811, pp. 352-357.
• Results of some experiments on blood and its metamorphoses. In: Reil's archive for physiology. 12, 1815, pp. 1-12.
• Remarks on the movements of the Mimosa pudica, in which a clear difference between the external and internal impression is shown, from the Institute for Culture of the Natural Science of Organisms. In: Reil's archive for physiology. 12, 1, 1815, pp. 13-36.
• Remarks on Some Subjects of Animal Chemistry. In: Meckel's German Archive for Physiology. 1, 2, 1815, pp. 202-220.
• Report to the City Council of Mergentheim on the chemical composition of Mergentheimer mineral water . Tübingen 1830.
• About the mineral waters in the Kingdom of Württemberg and in the adjacent areas, together with remarks about the relationship of their mixture and temperature to the mountain types (1931).
• Chemical analysis of the sulfur water near Sebastiansweiler . 1831.
• Chemical analysis of the Wildbad mineral water . 1831.
• An examination of the Cannstatter mineral water together with remarks about the different types of procedures to determine the amount of carbonic acid gas in sour water . (1834).
• About the strange appearance and about a new method to determine the amount of carbonic acid gas in mineral water. In: Kastner's archive for the entire study of nature. 1834.
• Description of the mineral springs found in Niederau . Tübingen 1834.
• Chemical investigations of the sulfur water near Reutlingen . 1835.
• Overview of the mineral water in the Kingdom of Württemberg and the neighboring areas and their occurrence conditions . Stuttgart 1836.
• Occurrence and discovery of iodine. In: Württembergische Jahreshefte. 1849 and 1853.
• Directory of the plant families that belong to the flora of Germany . Tubingen 1861.

Translations

• JL Gay-Lussac: On the relationship between the oxidation of metals and their saturation capacity for acids. In: Gehlen's Journal for Chemistry, Physics and Mineralogy. 9, 1810. (From the French)
• JJ Berzelius: Overview of the progress and the present state of animal chemistry. In: Schweiggers Journal for Chemistry and Physics. 12, 1814, pp. 361-399. (From English)
• Studies on breathing and the swim bladder of fish: Studies on the respiration of fish . By Provencal and Humboldt, pp. 86–121 Volume 1, Issue 1 Addendum to the treatise on the air contained in the swim bladder of fish . Von Biot, pp. 122-124. In: Schweiggers Journal for Chemistry and Physics. 1811.
• L. Noisette: Complete Handbook of Horticulture, Containing Vegetable, Tree, Plant, Flower, and Landscaping . (in 8 volumes), 1826–1830. From the French. Attached to the manual: Philipp Ré: A classification and characteristic of the diseases of plants . (From the Italian.)

literature

• Peter Bohley:  Sigwart, Georg Carl Ludwig. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 404 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Peter Bohley: "... Prof. Sigwart takes me". The vain struggle for recognition of the first German biochemist Georg Carl Ludwig Sigwart (1784-1864). In: Baussteine ​​zur Tübingen University History, No. 9 (1999), pp. 7–28.
• A. Hermann, A. Wankmüller: Physics, physiological chemistry and pharmacy at the University of Tübingen . Mohr, Tübingen 1980, pp. 42-43.
• Wolfgang Albert Herzog: Carl Philipp Diez, Christian Friedrich Reuss, Georg Carl Ludwig Sigwart and their activities in teaching and research in the field of forensic medicine in Tübingen. Dissertation . Univ. Tübingen, 1974.
• Bernhard Lepsius :  Sigwart, Georg Karl Ludwig . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, p. 304 f.
• Moritz Adolph Mosovius: About the origin and nature of the animal concrements, but especially the gallstones. In: Reil's archive for physiology. 11, 1812, 2nd H, pp. 237-262 along with 1 color. Copper plate with 24 figs. (Dissertatio inauguralis medica de calculorum animalium eorumque inprimis biliariorum origine et natura [manuscript] auctor Mauritius Adolphus Mosovius. July 13, 1812 Royal Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin. Medical Faculty)
• Thomas Müller: About the beginnings of clinical chemistry at the Berlin University (1810–1813): Georg Carl Ludwig Sigwart (1784–1864) as a pioneer of a new scientific discipline . Dissertation. Humboldt University, Berlin 1992.
• Friedrich Eduard Reusch : Necrology of Dr. Georg Carl Ludwig Sigwart in Tübingen. In: Annual books of the Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg . 22nd year, E. Schweizerbart, Stuttgart 1866, pp. 22-24.
• H. Simmer: From the beginnings of physiological chemistry in Germany. GKL Sigwart (1784–1864) and JE Schloßberger (1819–1860). Contributions of two Tübingen researchers to the development of physiological chemistry as an independent science. In: Sudhoff's archive for the history of medicine and natural sciences. 39, 1955, pp. 216-236.