George Ludwig Zuelzer

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

After initial successes in experimental use in dogs he treated on June 21, 1906 a patient who was already in diabetic coma and would die so soon, with an alcoholic extract of the pancreas of calves, who by the Berlin firm Schering was named " Acomatol " made ​​. After an initial improvement in the condition of the patient, however, showed severe side effects such as tremor, sweating, rapid heart rate, which had been already observed in animal studies to some extent. After discontinuation of the drug the patient died. It is not entirely unclear whether these reactions to contamination of the extract, an immunological defense reaction of the body or on a triggered by an overdose hypoglycemia were based.

Although Georg Ludwig Zülzer after this failure initially devoted himself to research on diabetes treatment and trying to improve as " Zülzer extract" designated preparation were no further significant results from him in this area is known. 1912 a patent was him under the title " Pancreas Preparation Suitable For The Treatment Of Diabetes" by the U.S. Patent Office grants which he had four years previously proposed ( Patent Number 1,027,790 ). The breakthrough in diabetes treatment was however only in 1921 through the development of a purified extract by Frederick Banting and Charles Best, with whom she a 13 -year-old diabetic saved the life in January of the following year.

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

Publications

• Experimental studies on the diabetes. In: Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift. Volume 44, 1907, pp. 474/475
• About attempts to specifischen Fermenttherapie of diabetes. In: Journal of Experimental Pathology and Therapy. Volume 5, 1908, pp. 307-318