Moritz grape

Moritz Traube (born February 12, 1826 in Ratibor, Upper Silesia , today Racibórz , Poland , † June 28, 1894 in Berlin ) was a German chemist (physiological chemistry) and universal private scholar.

Moritz Traube - portrait, source: Ber. d. German chem. Society 28 (1895) p. 1085

General

The broad spectrum of Traube's work encompassed physiological-chemical, medical, plant-physiological and pathophysiological questions. a. on hygiene, physical chemistry and basic chemical research. Although he did not work at a university but as a wine merchant, he successfully opposed theories of leading scientists of his time (including Justus von Liebig , Louis Pasteur , Felix Hoppe-Seyler , Julius Sachs ) and developed experimentally based and important research Theories. The chemistry of oxygen and its importance for organisms was the central object of investigation and the link between almost all of Traube's scientific work.

Moritz Traube was a younger brother of the well-known Berlin doctor Ludwig Traube , the co-founder of experimental pathology in Germany. Moritz Traube's son Wilhelm Traube developed an important process for purine synthesis . Hermann Traube , another son, was a mineralogist.

Biographical information

Education

Traube's father was a not very wealthy Jewish wine merchant, the grandson of a Krakow rabbi . Traube graduated from high school in Racibórz at the age of 16. On the advice of his older brother Ludwig Traube , he studied natural sciences in Berlin from 1842 to 1844.

He took experimental chemistry with Eilhard Mitscherlich , chemistry and stoichiometry with Heinrich Rose , mineralogy with Christian Samuel Weiss, physics with Heinrich Wilhelm Dove and gained his first practical experience in experimental chemistry in the chemical laboratory of Karl Friedrich Rammelsberg . The young Traube could not escape the strong attraction of Justus von Liebig and continued his studies from 1844 to 1845 in the practical-analytical course in Liebig's laboratory in Giessen. In addition to chemistry at Liebig, he also heard logic from Moritz Carrier and botany from Hermann Hoffmann. From 1845 to 1847 he was back in Berlin and heard geognosy with Heinrich Girard. During this time he completed his dissertation, which Eilhard Mitscherlich was in charge of, and which dealt with chromium connections ("De nonnullis chromii connubiis"). He was supported u. a. by Nathanael Pringsheim . All of Traube's teachers certified him with great diligence in their certificates, the dissertation was rated “diligent elaborate” and the exam “ cum laude ”. After completing his studies, the chemist Traube initially worked in a Berlin dye works in 1847/1848. The interest in science and research continued to be promoted by Ludwig Traube and after a short time Moritz Traube turned to medicine. In 1848/49 he studied anatomy, ligament theory and dissection exercises with Friedrich Schlemm . He also studied physiology and comparative anatomy with Johannes Müller , pathological anatomy with Rudolf Virchow and pharmacology with Eilhard Mitscherlich. A short clinical training followed. He took surgery with Bernhard von Langenbeck , and he had auscultation and percussion with his brother Ludwig. The overall extraordinarily broad spectrum of disciplines with which Traube became familiar was an important basis for his universal research. The formative scientists were Eilhard Mitscherlich, Justus von Liebig and Ludwig Traube.

Ratibor period (1849–1866)

When the second brother, Traubes, who was supposed to be his father's successor, died of diabetes , his father asked Moritz to return to Ratibor. After a long internal struggle, Traube complied with the demand and returned to the provincial Racibórz. But his drive for research was awakened and for the rest of his life the young chemist's passion for research remained alongside his job as a wine merchant.

In a floor chamber that cannot be heated adequately in winter , with the difficulties of lack of time and money and cut off from scientific life, a comprehensive chemical-physiological work was created - often at night - with numerous, precisely planned and accurately executed experiments. Traube's contemporaries had to acknowledge the correctness of all of his many experiments. Traube was also successful as a wine merchant and achieved material prosperity, so in 1864, together with his brother, he and his brother were able to give the Ratibor high school 500 thalers to reward students. In 1855, Traube married, and the marriage resulted in three daughters and two sons.

Breslau time (1866-1891)

In order to improve the conditions for research, Traube moved his business and residence to Wroclaw . He was able to work in the laboratory of his friend Theodor Poleck and in Rudolf Heidenhain's physiological institute . He later set up his own well-equipped laboratory and was even able to employ assistants. The business activity also showed more fruit, every year Traube drove to the Hungarian Hegyalja to inspect and buy the wine himself. His customers included u. a. Otto von Bismarck . In 1886, Traube resigned from the management. He was a member of the Silesian Society for Patriotic Culture from 1866 to 1890 and was elected to the Board of Directors in 1884. He also gave scientific lectures in Breslau.

Berlin period (1891-1894)

Already marked by illness - probably ischemic heart disease and diabetes - Traube came to Berlin, where his sons Hermann and Wilhelm worked at the university. Traube researched tirelessly until he was the last year of his life. Traube's death was noticed by a wide public. He was in the Berlin-Lichtenberg cemetery, Gudrunstr. buried. The grave, which no longer exists today, was provided with a bronze bust based on the model of a marble bust by the famous sculptor Fritz Schaper . Schaper had previously made a death mask and a plaster bust. The plaster bust is in the plaster depot of the Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin.

Scientific achievements

Medicine and clinical chemistry

Traube demonstrated that the urinary sugar excretion of a diabetic increased after ingesting starch and less after ingesting protein . It increases as the disease progresses. He also showed that diabetics can easily absorb fats from the intestines . For the therapy, Traube made a contribution to a scientifically based diet . For diagnostics , he suggested that instead of only examining the urine collected, as was previously the case, the amount of sugar excreted in defined periods of time should be determined. In addition, you have to measure urine sugar after eating and in the morning on an empty stomach. With this, he anticipated elementary diagnostic principles of today's blood sugar determination for urine sugar analysis. Another study examines the laxative effect of lactose for use in constipation .

Fermentation and fermentation effects

Traube's main work, the "theory of ferments" from 1858 is the first comprehensive, consistent from the chemical point of view developed and experimentally based Fermenttheorie . With the discovery of yeast as a living organism in 1837, the question of the mechanisms of fermentations was for him unsolved. Traube was a consistent opponent of the vitalistic protoplasmic theory . He defined the ferments for the first time as certain chemical compounds with protein character and formulated the necessity of the direct molecular contact between ferment and substrate for enzyme effects . As is customary today, he classified the ferments according to the type of reaction. Succeeded M. grape, long before the discovery of cell-free fermentation by Eduard Buchner in 1897 the continued effect of plant enzymes after their extraction from plant cells detect ( guaiac resin bluing effect of aqueous potato extract). So far, it has been ignored in the biochemical historical literature that Traube already made qualitative considerations on the reaction kinetics and illustrated the reciprocal relationship between reaction time and amount of enzyme. In defense of his fermentation theory, Traube led a scientific dispute with Louis Pasteur and Felix Hoppe-Seyler . He objected to Pasteur's claim that fermentation is impossible without vital activity. In connection with these experiments, Traube was the first to publish a process for the production of pure yeast. With Hoppe-Seyler, Traube got into controversy about the mechanism of oxygen activation in fermentative reactions. Traube's experiments aimed to prove the activation of oxygen by ferments as catalysts and to refute Hoppe-Seyler's hypothesis that oxygen was activated by nascent hydrogen produced by fermentation .

Plant physiology and the discovery of semi-permeable membranes

In 1864, Traube presented artificial, semipermeable membranes for the first time , which he recognized as molecular sieves and on which he developed the first experimentally based physico-chemical theory of cell growth. The artificial cells or precipitation membranes were created from droplets of glue that grew in tannic acid through the influx of water. Other membrane formers were: copper acetate , yellow blood liquor salt and copper (II) chloride ). Membranes made from these substances formed the basis for research into osmotic pressure in aqueous solutions: Wilhelm Pfeffer used Traubian membranes in 1877 for his measurements of osmotic pressure; Ten years later Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff developed a theory of osmotic pressure in solutions from Pfeffer's results. Traube himself contributed to the research of diffusion and osmosis with his own research .

Pathophysiology, Bacteriology and Hygiene

Traube also made an important contribution to the study of the causes of diseases. Together with an assistant Rudolf Heidenhain he proved in 1874 for the first time in the animal experiment, the ability of the organism , spoilage bacteria to destroy. In the evaluation of the results, he distinguished chemical poisonous effects from infection with microorganisms and pathogenic bacteria from putrefactive bacteria. He also suspected for the first time a connection between defense against infection and active oxygen in blood cells. In his last work, Traube proposes a method of sterilizing drinking water with chlorinated lime . This process has become very important. In 1914, drinking water was treated in this way in more than 100 cities in the USA. The US occupation after the Second World War brought the process back to Germany.

Doctrine of biological oxidation

Traube developed a uniform concept of the fundamental importance of internal breathing for heat generation , structure formation and maintenance as well as organ function. As a result, not only the blood but all body tissues were the sites of biological oxidation . Traube's theory of muscle metabolism is important because it showed the close connection between respiration , muscle activity and heat generation and contributed to the refutation of Liebig's theory of nutrients. The substrates for the production of muscle strength were mainly nitrogen-free substances and not exclusively proteins. In order to elucidate the process of oxygen activation in organisms by ferments , Traube experimentally investigated autoxidation (slow combustion at a low reaction temperature) and the activation of oxygen in inanimate nature. He characterized the role of water as a reaction partner in slow burns and characterized the intermediate character of the hydrogen peroxide formation .

Effects, honors and appreciations

With the consistent application of chemistry to physiology, Traube succeeds Liebig and stands at Hoppe-Seyler's side. Traube published 51 papers, gave public lectures and, to a small extent, was also effective as a scientific teacher. The students of importance are Guido Bodländer and his son Wilhelm Traube . His physiological-chemical concepts influenced research. During Traube's lifetime, his achievements in clarifying the role of nutrients in metabolism and the representation of artificial, semi-permeable membranes were particularly emphasized. Outward signs of recognition were the awarding of an honorary doctorate in medicine by the University of Halle-Wittenberg in 1867, the election to the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina in 1885 and the election to the corresponding member of the physical-mathematical class for chemistry at the Royal Prussian Academy der Wissenschaft 1886. Louis Pasteur called Traube an "outstanding physiologist and professor", extensive appraisals come from August Wilhelm v. Hofmann , Emil Fischer and Ferdinand Cohn . The philologist Karl Gotthelf Jacob Weinhold found out about Traube's life, Charles Darwin had Traube send him his work on cell formation in 1875. The philosophers were also very interested in Traube's results, so Karl Marx was introduced to Traube personally in Karlsbad in the 1970s, since Friedrich Engels spoke about the dialectics of nature (“ Dialectics of Nature ”, “ Anti-Dühring ”) Relationship between organic and inorganic worked, and Traube's artificial cells were regarded as a model for living plant cells. When the young Robert Koch presented his epoch-making work on the anthrax bacillus as a specific pathogen to the then leading bacteriologist Ferdinand Cohn in Breslau in 1876, Moritz Traube was invited as one of the few witnesses of this historic hour, who at that time had already earned the recognition of university scientists .

bibliography

His sons Hermann and Wilhelm Traube have compiled all of Moritz Traube's publications with the exception of one publication ("About milk sugar as a drug") in:

• Hermann and Wilhelm Traube (ed.): Collected treatises . Mayer and Müller, Berlin 1899 digitized

Important individual publications:

• De nonnullis chromii connubiis . Schade, Berlin 1847 (Berlin, Univ., Phil. Diss., 1847)
• About the laws of sugar excretion in diabetes mellitus . In: Virchow's archive f. Path. Anatomy Vol. 4 (1852) 109
• On the theory of fermentation and putrefaction phenomena, as well as fermentation effects in general . In: Poggendorff, Annal. d. Phys. u. Chem. Vol. 103 (1858) 331
• Theory of Ferment Effects. Ferd. Dümmlers Verlagbuchhandlung, Berlin 1858 Digitized
• About the respiration of the plants . In: Monthly reports of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin . 1859, pp. 83-94 digitized
• On the relation of respiration to muscular activity and the importance of respiration in general . In: Virchow's archive f. Path. Anatomy Vol. 21 (1861) 386
• About the heat of combustion of the nutrients. Virchow's archive f. Path. Anatomy Vol. 21 (1861) 414
• About homogeneous membranes and their influence on endosmosis. Preliminary notices . In: Zentralblatt fd med. Science No. 7 and 7 8 (1866)
• Experiments on the theory of cell formation and endosmosis . In: Reichert's u. du Bois-Reymond's Archives (1867)
• About putrefaction and resistance of living organisms to the same . In: Annual report of the Schles. Society for fatherly. Cultur (1874) 179
• About the behavior of alcohol yeast in oxygen-free media . In: Ber. d. German chem. Society 7 (1874) 872
• On the mechanical theory of cell growth and the history of this teaching . In: Botanische Zeitung 36 (1878) No. 42, 43, 44
• About milk sugar as a medicine . In: German Medical Weekly No. 9 (1881) 113-114
• Via activation of the oxygen . In: Ber. d. German chem. Society 15 (1882) 659
• About the behavior of nascent hydrogen against oxygen gas . In: Ber. d. German chem. Society 16 (1883) 1201
• About the electrolytic formation of hydrogen peroxide at the cathode . In: Session reports of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin . 1887 (II), pp. 1041-1050 digitized
• On the doctrine of autoxidation (slow burning of reducing bodies) . In: Ber. d. German chem. Society 22 (1889) 1496
• For the history of the doctrine of the antiseptic properties of the higher organisms . In: Central Journal for Clinical Medicine (1891) No. 52
• Simple process to make water sterile in large quantities . In: magazine f. Hygiene and Infectious Diseases 16 (1894) 149

literature

• Henrik Franke: Moritz Traube (1826-1894). Life and work of the universal private scholar and pioneer of physiological chemistry . (Med. Diss. 1994)
• Henrik Franke: Moritz Traube (1826-1894). From wine merchant to academician. The extraordinary path of the private Jewish scholar and pioneer of physiological chemistry . Publishing house for scientific and regional history Dr. Michael Engel, Darmstadt 1998 ISBN 3-929134-21-7 ( studies and sources on the history of chemistry 9)
• August Wilhelm Hofmann : Justification of Moritz Traube's proposal for a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin from June 10, 1886 (Central Archive of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Sign. II-III, 123, pp. 115–117, 5 F.)
• Traube, M .: Letter to KGJ Weinhold dated June 11, 1888 (Central Archive of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, NL-Weinhold 1419, 4 sheets)
• Traube, M .: letters. Berlin State Library. Prussian cultural property. Manuscript dept. Signed collection Darmstaedter G 1 1875 (12)
• G. Bodländer: Moritz Traube . In: Reports of the German Chemical Society . 28 (1895)
• F. Cohn: Obituary and Nekrolog Moritz Traube . In: Annual report of the Silesian Society for Patriotic Culture 72 (1894/1895). II. Dept., B. Session d. zoolog.-botan. Section v. November 1, 1894, 63-64; Necrologists 16-19; General Report 1–14
• E. Fischer: Dr. Moritz grape . In: Reports of the German Chemical Society 27 (1894), pp. 1795–1796
• Michael Fraenkel: Moritz Traube. The life picture of a brilliant Upper Silesian . Raabe, Oppeln 1931
• F. Hoppe-Seyler: About fermentation. Answer to an attack by Mr. Moritz Traube . In: Reports of the German Chemical Society 10 (1877) pp. 693–695
• F. Love: History of Physiological Chemistry . Leipzig and Vienna (1935)
• Karl Mägdefrau : history of botany . 2nd edition, Stuttgart, Jena, New York (1992)
• Karl Müller: Moritz Traube (1826–1894) and his theory of ferments . Juris Druck + Verlag, Zurich 1970 (Zurich medical history treatises 75) (also Zurich, Univ., Diss.)
• L. Th. Sourkes: Moritz Traube, 1826-1894. His contribution to biochemistry . In: Journal of the History of Medicin 10 (1955) pp. 379-391
• Winfried R. Pötsch et al .: Traube, Moritz . In: Lexicon of important chemists . Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1988 ISBN 3-323-00185-0 , pp. 426-427
• Traube, Moritz . In: Walther Killy , Rudolf Vierhaus (Hrsg.): Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie . Vol. 10. Saur, Munich 1999 ISBN 3-598-23170-9 , p. 71

Web links

• Scientific biography about Moritz Traube by Henrik Franke
• Literature by and about Moritz Traube in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Moritz Traube  in the German Digital Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wilhelm Pfeffer. Osmotic studies . Wilh. Engelmann, Leipzig 1921. (2nd, unchanged edition of the first print from 1877).
2. ^ JH van 't Hoff, The role of osmotic pressure in the analogy between solution and gases, Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie 1 (1887), 481-508. Website Uri Lachish (English, PDF; 183 kB) .
3. ^ List of members Leopoldina, Moritz Traube
4. ^ University library of the Humboldt University Berlin, call number 94 HB 1449.