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391 [600] KÖLLIKER
KOPP [601] He was generally at the forefront of developments. He supported Guldberg’s [721] law of mass action, and readily adopted the views of Avogadro [412] after these had been explained by Can nizzaro [668] in 1860. He labored to determine atomic weights with great precision and was one of the many who found that Prout’s [440] hypothesis did not hold. However, he made the daring speculation that something about the smaller particles of which the atom was made up produced these deviations. Since at that time, it was a basic dogma of chemistry that atoms were fundamental particles and there was nothing smaller, the suggestion was completely ignored but a half cen tury later, it turned out Marignac was right after all. He also worked with the rare earths separating them by repeated solutions and precipitations designed to take ad vantage of slight differences in solubili ties among them (guided by spectro scopic studies of the different fractions). He is given credit for the discovery of two of the rare earth elements: ytter bium and gadolinium. Marignac hesitated long, however, be fore accepting Kekule’s [680] notions of organic molecular structure. [600] KÖLLIKER, Rudolf Albert von (kerl'ih-ker) Swiss anatomist and physiologist Born: Zürich, July 6, 1817 Died: Würzburg, Bavaria, No vember 2, 1905 Kölliker, the son of a bank official, studied under Oken [423], Müller [522], and Henle [557] and obtained his medi cal degree from Heidelberg in 1842. After a short stay as a professor at the University of Zürich he joined the fac ulty of the University of Würzburg in 1847 and remained there for half a cen tury. Kölliker studied tissues by microscope with painstaking care and in 1848 was the first to isolate the cells of smooth muscle. He wrote a textbook in 1852 that might be considered the first good study of histology, the science that had been originated a half century before, without the microscope, by Bichat [400]. In 1861 Kolliker also published an im portant text on embryology. He was the first to interpret the developing embryo in terms of cell theory and was one of the founders of modem embryology. Kolliker made it quite clear that eggs and sperm might be considered cells and in 1849 he showed that nerve fibers were elongated portions of cells. This was a forerunner of Ram6n y Cajal’s [827] neuron theory, which in his old age he strongly supported. He was particularly interested in the cell nucleus and believed it was the key to the transmission of hereditary charac teristics. In this he was again a half cen tury ahead of his time. He, like Nageli [598], believed that evolution proceeded in jumps, and in this too he was half a century in advance. [601] KOPP, Hermann Franz Moritz (kup) German physical chemist Born: Hanau, Hesse, October 30, 1817
Died: Heidelberg, Baden, Febru ary 20, 1892 Kopp was the son of a physician who occupied himself on occasion with chem istry, so that the youngster was carrying on at least part of the family tradition when he went to the University of Hei delberg in 1836 to study chemistry under Gmelin [457]. He transferred to the Uni versity of Marburg a year later and re ceived his Ph.D. there in 1838. He then found himself in Giessen in 1839 drawn by the powerful attraction of Liebig’s [532] reputation. In 1841, when he was twenty-four, he began work on a history of chemistry that was to take six years and to appear in four volumes. It made him famous and he is remembered as a historian of chemistry even more than for his re search. By 1843 he had a professorial position at Giessen, which he kept for twenty years, transferring then to Heidelberg. 392 [602] WURTZ
SAINTE-CLAIRE DEVILLE [603] When Berzelius [425] died in 1848, Lie big and Kopp continued his annual re ports on the latest developments in chemistry, broadening the effort to in clude associated sciences. Kopp contin ued his share of this labor until 1862. In research Kopp’s chief effort consisted of the association of physical properties with chemical structure. He was the first to make careful measure ments of the boiling points of organic substances. He also measured specific gravities and specific heats. He showed the manner in which similar compounds differed by smooth increments in such physical properties when the length of the chain of connected carbon atoms was increased. He was thus a pioneer in the study of physical organic chemistry. [602] WURTZ, Charles Adolphe (vurts) French chemist Born: Wolfisheim, near Stras bourg, November 26, 1817 Died: Paris, May 12, 1884 Wurtz, the son of a Lutheran minister (he was born in the German-tinged sec tion of France known as Alsace, which accounts for his last name), was disin clined to follow in his father’s footsteps. He embarked on medical studies and gained his doctorate in 1843. By that time, however, it was chemistry that had won his heart. He moved on to Giessen where he studied under Liebig [532] and met Hofmann [604]. He then moved on to the University of Paris, where he gained professorial status in 1853, suc ceeding Dumas [514]. Wurtz was the first important chemist in France to support the structural views of Lament [553] in organic chemistry against the older views of Berzelius [425]. Using the new viewpoint, it seemed to him that organic derivatives of ammonia could exist and he prepared the first “amine,” as such organic deriva tives were called. He also was the first to prepare phosphorus oxychloride and a compound, ethylene glycol, which pos sessed two alcohol groups, and many other substances. When the Sorbonne finally established a professorship of organic chemistry, Wurtz was the first one to fill it, in 1875. Perhaps Wurtz is best remembered for a method of synthesizing long-chain hy drocarbons by reacting hydrocarbon io dides with metallic sodium. This method, which he discovered in 1855, is still called the Wurtz reaction. Wurtz had the unhappiness of seeing his home province ceded to the new Ger man Empire after France’s heavy defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
Henri Étienne (sant-clair duh- veelO French chemist Born: St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, March 11, 1818 Died: Boulogne-sur-Seine, France, July 1, 1881 Sainte-Claire Deville was bom of a French father (a prominent shipowner) who was serving as French consul on an island that then belonged to Denmark. He was sent to France for an education where lectures by Thénard [416] at tracted him to chemistry. In 1843 he ob tained doctoral degrees in both medicine and science and in 1845 received a professorial appointment at the Univer sity of Besançon. He succeeded Balard [529] at the École Normale in 1851 and then became a professor of chemistry at the Sorbonne, succeeding Dumas [514]. In the 1850s he began an investigation of aluminum. Earlier, Oersted [417] and Wohler [515] had isolated the metal in small, impure quantities. Sainte-Claire Deville used Wohler’s method of react ing aluminum compounds with metallic potassium but he soon substituted so dium, which was safer and more efficient. After preparing sodium in quantity he was able to do the same for aluminum. A fifteen-pound ingot was prepared in 1855. The price of the metal was reduced from 30,000 francs a kilo gram in 1855 to 300 francs in 1859. (In the latter year he became a professor of chemistry at the Sorbonne.) Even so, aluminum was far too expen sive to compete with steel. It required 393 [604] HOFMANN
DONDERS [605] the work of Hall [933] and Heroult [925], a generation later, to bring alumi num into its own. Sainte-Claire Deville, in addition to his work on aluminum, was the first to prepare nitrogen pentox- ide and among the first to prepare tol uene. He worked on the metallurgy of platinum and demonstrated the manner in which gas molecules broke apart at high temperatures. He was plagued by ill health and over work as he aged and, in fit of depres sion, killed himself when he was sixty- three. [604] HOFMANN, August Wilhelm von (hofe'mahn) German chemist Born: Giessen, Hesse, April 8, 1818
Died: Berlin, May 2, 1892 Hofmann, the son of an architect, was another of those who, beginning outside the field of chemistry (he studied law), were lured into the science by the per suasive charm of the teaching of Liebig [532]. Under Liebig, Hofmann worked on coal tar and studied the properties of aniline, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1841 with a thesis on the subject. (He also married Liebig’s niece. It was the first of four marriages, he being left a widower three times and having eleven children alto gether.)
He was invited to England at the sug gestion of Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. There he taught at the Royal College of Chemistry in London and served as chemist to the British royal mint. He was an excellent lecturer, laying great stress on dramatic demon strations that he had assistants perform while he talked, for he himself lacked deftness. Many of the demonstrations he devised have remained standards ever since.
Hofmann’s interest in coal tar lingered and expressed itself in a remark that set Perkin [734] to work on the analysis of quinine—finding synthetic dyes, instead. Hofmann was not too proud to follow in the course his pupil had charted out and two years after Perkin’s discovery he was himself synthesizing new dyes, com monly called Hofmann violets. In 1864, after twenty years in England, he re turned to Germany, took a post in Bonn, and within a year moved to the Univer sity of Berlin, succeeding Mitscherlich [485].
He founded the German Chemical So ciety and like Perkin he continued to develop new synthetic methods (the Hofmann degradation reaction is still much used) and to produce new dyes. He wrote numerous obituaries for other chemists in a rather overblown style and these were published in three volumes in 1888. In that same year he was en nobled.
Under his leadership Germany over took England and France and developed a huge dye industry, for Germany was far ahead in organic chemistry generally. Against Perkin, virtually alone in En gland, a superlatively capable team of German chemists dominated organic chemistry for half a century after Hof mann’s return, until the dislocations of World War I and the British blockade forced other countries, notably the United States, to develop chemical indus tries of their own and to free themselves of dependence on Germany. [605] DONDERS, Francisais Comelis (dawn'derz) Dutch physiologist
May 27, 1818 Died: Utrecht, March 24, 1889 Donders, who was left fatherless in in fancy, was brought up by a mother and eight older sisters. In 1835 he entered the University of Utrecht as a medical student and obtained his degree in 1840 from Leiden University. In 1842 he returned to Utrecht as as sistant to Mulder [531] and interested himself in ophthalmology. He discov ered, in 1858, that farsightedness was caused by a too shallow eyeball so that the focus fell behind the retina. In 1862 he found that astigmatism was caused by the uneven curvatures of the cornea or lens. In 1864 he published a book on 394 [606] SECCHE
SEMMELWEISS [607] ophthalmology that was the first impor tant book in the field. It then became possible to design and manufacture lenses that would correct imperfect vision with much greater accu racy than had been possible before. [606] SECCHI, Pietro Angelo (sek'kee) Italian astronomer
1818
Died: Rome, February 26, 1878 Secchi, the son of a cabinetmaker, en tered the Society of Jesus in 1833 and his education led him to work as an as tronomer. He taught in several Jesuit schools, but then came 1848, when a temporary spasm of liberalism and an ticlericalism shot through Europe. Sec chi, as a Jesuit, was forced out of Italy and he spent some time in Great Britain and in the United States, teaching at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and other places. The spasm ended quickly enough and soon Secchi was back in Rome, where he was appointed director of the Gregorian University Ob servatory. He seized early upon new techniques. Along with Huggins [646] he was the first to adapt spectroscopy to astronomy in a systematic manner and he made the first spectroscopic survey of the heavens, studying the spectra of four thousand stars between 1864 and 1868. This made it quite clear that stellar spectra differed among themselves, and so for the first time in history stars were found to differ in more than position, brightness, and color. Since Kirchhoff [648] had es tablished the significance of spectral lines, the difference in stellar spectra meant a difference in chemical consti tution. In 1867 Secchi suggested the estab lishment of spectral classes and he him self divided the spectra he had studied into four classes. Accumulating data have made a considerably more complex division necessary; however, the clas sification of stellar spectra begun by Secchi led on to schemes of stellar evolu tion, as the classification of species by Ray [213] and Linnaeus [276] had led to schemes of the evolution of species. Secchi was also, along with De la Rue [589] and W. C. Bond [464], among the first to turn the new technique of photography to astronomic use. In 1851 he took photographs of the sun during various phases of an eclipse and by 1859 he had a complete set of photographs of the moon. He was also the first to make color drawings of Mars and to show the yel low desert areas and the darker (vegeta tion?) areas. Secchi’s increased reputation in astron omy stood him in good stead in 1870, when the newly unified Kingdom of Italy absorbed the last remnant of the old Papal States. Italy expelled the Jesuits, who were naturally hostile to the new situation, but allowed Secchi to remain at his post this time, his importance as an astronomer outweighing the fact of his membership in the order. [607] SEMMELWEISS, Ignaz Philipp (zem'el-vise) Hungarian physician
Semmelweiss, the son of a prosperous shopkeeper of German origin, was going to study law at the University of Vienna till he casually accompanied a friend to a lecture on anatomy. He found himself fascinated, tackled medicine, and re ceived his medical degree at the Univer sity of Vienna in 1844 (Hungary was at the time part of the Austrian Empire). He interested himself at once in childbed fever. It was a puzzling disease, since women bearing children in Vienna hospi tals with the help of superbly educated doctors died of the fever very com monly, while women bearing children at home with the help of ignorant midwives usually survived. Semmelweiss decided the doctors themselves were somehow carrying the disease from the dissecting rooms and in 1847 began to force doctors under him to wash their hands in strong chemicals before touching any patients. This was unpleasant for the doctors, especially to
[608] MITCHELL
GATLING [609] those older ones who were proud of the “hospital odor” of their hands and who resented being told they were causing disease. The incidence of childbed fever went down drastically following Semmel- weiss’s ruling; but when Hungary re volted (unsuccessfully) against Austria in 1849, the Viennese doctors were able to call patriotism to the aid of folly and forced their Hungarian annoyer out. The incidence of childbed fever climbed to record heights as soon as handwashing was stopped but the Viennese doctors did not mind as long as they could keep their pride. Even Virchow [632] turned a deaf ear to a Hungarian. Semmelweiss retired to a hospital in Budapest where he instituted his antisep tic measures and there the incidence of childbed fever dropped to almost zero. In July 1865 Semmelweiss suffered a nervous breakdown and after a trip to Vienna was committed to a mental hos pital there. Two weeks later he was dead of an infection he had been subjected to when he had accidentally wounded him self while working with a sick patient. Thus, he died of childbed fever him self, just a little too soon to see the prin ciple of antisepsis rise triumphant first in England under Lister [672] (who freely acknowledged Semmelweiss’ prece dence), then in France under Pasteur [642], and finally even among the foolish doctors of Vienna. [608] MITCHELL, Maria American astronomer
August 1, 1818 Died: Lynn, Massachusetts, June 28, 1889 Maria Mitchell was the first woman astronomer of the United States. She was educated chiefly by her father. She was the librarian at the Nantucket Atheneum but conducted astronomical observations as an amateur. On October 1, 1847, she discovered a comet, which at once brought her to the attention of the world of science. In 1849 she was employed by the U. S. Nautical Almanac Office where she engaged in astronomical computations. In 1865 she was appointed professor of astronomy at the newly founded woman’s college of Vassar. In 1868, hav ing to choose between a job she enjoyed and her duty to make it possible for women to receive a higher education, she chose the latter, retaining her Vassar po sition till her death. Her astronomical achievements were moderate, but they were done without any help from society at large and against all the taken-for-granted assump tions that kept women brainlessly at home. She represented a mark to shoot at for the oppressed half of the Ameri can population. She was the first woman member of the American Acad emy of Arts and Sciences. [609] GATLING, Richard Jordan American inventor Born: Maney’s Neck, North Car olina, September 12, 1818 Died: New York, New York, February 26, 1903 Gatling spent his whole life putting to gether devices that would do something better than it had been done before. As a boy he helped his father perfect a ma chine for planting cotton and, after he moved to St. Louis in 1844, he adapted it to the planting of various grains. He invented a screw propeller for ships in 1839, but was anticipated here by Ericsson [533]. Rather unexpectedly, he switched to a medical career after an attack of small pox had concentrated his attention on human disease. He graduated from Ohio Medical College in 1850, but continued to be interested in inventing and does not seem ever to have practiced. Once the Civil War started, he bent his talents to the development of a rapid- fire gun. By November 1862 he had a model that could fire nearly six bullets per second. The inertia of the military mind kept it from being adopted before the war was over but Gatling had in vented the first machine gun. His name lives today, in a sense, in the use of the slang term “gat” for a gun (not necessarily a machine gun, either). Download 17.33 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
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