Georg Ludwig Zülzer

Georg Ludwig Zülzer (born April 10, 1870 in Berlin , † October 16, 1949 in New York ) was a German internist who did research in the field of the treatment of diabetes mellitus . Based on the discovery by Oskar Minkowski at the end of the 19th century that the removal of the pancreas in dogs caused diabetes mellitus, Georg Ludwig Zülzer carried out experiments at the beginning of the 20th century on the use of pancreatic extracts for the treatment of diabetes.

After initial successes in experimental use in dogs he treated on 21 June 1906 a patient already in diabetic coma was and would therefore die soon, with an alcoholic extract from the pancreas of calves provided by the Berlin company Schering under under the name Acomatol . After an initial improvement in the patient's condition, however, there were severe side effects such as tremors, sweating and an accelerated heartbeat, some of which had already been observed in animal experiments. After discontinuing the drug, the patient died. It is not entirely clear whether these reactions were due to impurities in the extract, an immunological defense reaction of the body or a hypoglycemia caused by an overdose .

Although Georg Ludwig Zülzer initially continued to research the treatment of diabetes after this failure and tried to improve the preparation, also known as "Zülzer extract", no further noteworthy results in this area were known from him. In 1912 he was granted a patent under the title "Pancreas Preparation Suitable For The Treatment Of Diabetes" by the American Patent Office , which he had applied for four years earlier (patent number 1,027,790). The breakthrough in diabetes therapy did not come until 1921, however, with the development of a purified extract by Frederick Banting and Charles Best , with which they saved the life of a 13-year-old diabetic in January of the following year.

Wilhelm Zülzer (1834–1893), the father of Georg Ludwig Zülzer, had already been a doctor in Berlin. Georg Ludwig Zülzer, who was of Jewish descent , emigrated to New York in the United States in 1934 . He was married and had three children, of whom Wolf William Zülzer studied medicine like his father and grandfather, and became a well-known pediatrician in the United States.

Publications (selection)

• Experimental studies on diabetes. In: Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift. 44th year, 1907, p. 474 f.
• About attempts at a specific fermentation therapy for diabetes. In: Journal of Experimental Pathology and Therapy. 5th year, 1908, pp. 307-318.

literature

• Klaus Helmut Mellinghoff: Georg Ludwig Zuelzer's contribution to insulin research. Series: Düsseldorf works on the history of medicine. Volume 36. Triltsch, Düsseldorf 1971

Web links

• Literature by and about Georg Ludwig Zülzer in the catalog of the German National Library