Gerrit Grijns

Gerrit Grijns (born August 28, 1865 in Leerdam , † November 11, 1944 in Utrecht ) was a Dutch researcher and co-discoverer of vitamin B ₁ . He worked as a research assistant under the later Nobel Prize winner Christiaan Eijkman .

biography

Grijns was born in Leerdam in 1865. From 1885 he studied medicine at the University of Utrecht and received in 1892 with his thesis contributions to the physiology of the nervus opticus ( Bijdrage tot de physiologie van den nervus opticus ) a license to practice medicine .

He was then the first to receive a grant from the Donders Foundation so that he could study physiology with Carl Ludwig in Leipzig for a semester .

After his marriage, Grijns moved to the Dutch East Indies in September 1892 and became a military doctor . In Batavia he got a job in the laboratory for bacteriology and pathological anatomy ( Eijkman Instituut ), where Eijkman did his research on the metabolism of tropical inhabitants.

Together with Eijkman, he examined the paresis disease Beri-Beri and established a connection between machine-peeled rice and the disease. Eijkman concluded that the rice contains a poisonous substance to which the rice husk has an antidote. Grijns, on the other hand, made the claim that the rice husk contains a substance that is necessary for metabolism. He called the deficiency of this substance 'partial hunger' or called this substance a 'protective substance' and thus gave the term vitamin , which came from Casimir Funk , a useful definition.

After Eijkman returned to the Netherlands in 1896 due to health problems, Grijns continued Eijkman's work. In a large-scale study with chickens, Grijns exerted a great influence on nutrition, which he published in the Geneeskundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indië in 1901 . He also took the view that the silver skin from rice is not necessary for nutrition, if the food is z. B. is supplemented with mung beans . In the same year, the Norwegian researcher Axel Holst made his way to Grijns in Batavia to get to the bottom of the so-called Schiffs-Beri-Beri (scurvy) .

In 1902 Grijns had to return to Europe temporarily and visited some European clinics and laboratories on this occasion.

Two years later he returned to Java in 1904 and became an executive in the laboratory he had previously left. In 1913 he was promoted to director of the laboratory and worked on plans for a modern public health system that would meet the challenges of the future.

In 1917 Grijns had to leave the Dutch East Indies for good for health reasons and in 1921 was given a chair in animal physiology at Wageningen University , where he taught and researched until 1935.

On May 28, 1924, Grijns became a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences , Natural History Department. In 1926 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

Grijns was nominated for the Nobel Prize together with Eijkman in 1926 and 1927. While Eijkman received the Nobel Prize in 1929, his colleague Grijns received nothing.

In recent years Grijns suffered from Parkinson's .

credentials

^ The marriage register of the city of Utrecht

literature

G. Grijns, Contributions to the history of the recognition of beriberi as avitaminosis, In: Emil Abderhalden (ed) , On advances in scientific research. New episode. Issue 1, Berlin, 1927

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Grijns, Gerrit
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Dutch hygienist
DATE OF BIRTH	August 28, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH	Leerdam
DATE OF DEATH	November 11, 1944
Place of death	Utrecht

[1] The marriage register of the city of Utrecht