J.H. van ’t Hoff en ‘De toepassing der physische scheikunde in de medische wetenschappen’

Abstract

J.H. van 't Hoff and the application of physical chemistry in medical science In the professional medical literature of the end of the nineteenth century we regularly meet applications of Van 't Hoffs theory of diluted solutions on medical problems. In the Netherlands there was an early interest in physical chemistry among medical practitioners, although mostly in a passive way. H.J. Hamburger (1859-1924), lecturer at the State Veterinary School at Utrecht (1888), did pioneering work on the application of the recently physical chemistry on physiology. As professor of physiology at Groningen University he wrote his classic work: Osmotischer Druck und lonenlehre in den medicinischen Wissenschaften (1902-1904). In Amsterdam the unsalaried university lecturer E. Cohen (1869-1045) gave in 1901 on nineteen Saturday mornings a course on physical chemistry for physicians; his colleague in technical and physical chemistry at the University of Leiden, W.P. Jorissen (1869-1955), did the same for biology students (1903). But only Van 't Hoff planned to do fundamental research on the role enzymes should play in chemical syntheses. After his Berlin work on the problem of terrestrial salt deposition, he wanted to investigate the application of physical chemistry on synthetic enzyme reactions (1909). Because of his untimely death in 1911 he had to restrict himself to a first exploration of the preparatory phase of his research. He did not see the successful applications of his physical chemistry on problems in the life sciences.