Max Joseph von Pettenkofer

Max Josef Pettenkofer, since 1883 von Pettenkofer ( born December 3, 1818 in Lichtheim to Neuburg an der Donau, † February 10, 1901 in Munich) was a Bavarian chemist and hygienist. According to him, the Max von Pettenkofer Institute in Munich (LMU Munich) is named.

Life

Max Pettenkofer Joseph - son of a farmer in Donaumoos - visited at the expense of his uncle Franz Xaver Pettenkofer, the court and was royally Bavarian personal apothecary until 1837, the Munich- old high school and then studied in Munich, pharmacy, science and medicine. In 1843 he completed his studies with a doctorate in medicine, surgery and obstetrics. At the same time he acquired the license to practice as a pharmacist. After that he worked in Würzburg with chemicals and then moved to Giessen to the laboratory of Justus von Liebig. 1847 appointed to Pettenkofer professor of medicinal chemistry at the Ludwig- Maximilians- University of Munich, he became its rector in 1865. In the same year he was in Munich first German professor of hygiene and taught there from 1876 to 1879 the first hygiene institute. 1883 you gave Pettenkofer the hereditary nobility; 1890 to 1899 he was president of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. In 1893 he resigned his professorship. He shot himself on 10 February 1901 in his apothecary apartment in the Munich Residenz. Pettenkofer was buried in the Old South Cemetery in Munich.

The estate of Max von Pettenkofer is located in the Bavarian State Library.

Services

Pettenkofer's most recognized field was defined by himself and filled with content the science of hygiene. He put the hygiene as an independent field of medicine and also recognized the associated economic aspect. Therefore, he also spoke about management and engineers and developed a health technology that was used for example in the renovation of Munich. Munich owes its Pettenkofer sewers and a centralized drinking water supply. In the late 19th century Munich was one of the cleanest cities in Europe.

Early in his career, he held chemistry and physiology, the preferred areas of work. One of the most important achievements Pettenkofer is the discovery of intermittent properties of chemical elements ( 1850). Thus he created an important basis for the development of the periodic table of the elements. Lack the support of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, he could not continue his research further. In Justus von Liebig, he developed the bile acid proof and worked at the Royal Hauptmünzamt where he used improved methods for molten precious metal and coin production ( 1848-1849 ). 1844 discovered Pettenkofer creatinine, an important metabolic product of muscle tissue, he also worked on an improved method for the production of cement (1847 ), invented the copper - amalgam dental filling ( 1848), described the production of illuminating gas from wood ( wood gas, 1851) and examined ( 1860 ) together with Carl von Voit ( 1831-1908 ) metabolic balance sheets. To date, respiratory apparatus are built according to the " Pettenkofer principle". The fictional von Pettenkofer meat extract ( " bouillon cubes " Liebig ) was prepared on an industrial scale with South American beef.

In his second half of life is devoted Pettenkofer epidemiology. In contrast to his earlier work, these studies have only historical value. Pettenkofer did not believe that the cholera which broke out in Munich in 1854, will alone triggered by a pathogen but extent of soil and groundwater composition, the main importance ( studies and observations on the spread of cholera, 1855). In connection with the famous Zwiestreit with Robert Koch about the cause of cholera in 1892 Pettenkofer swallowed even a culture of cholera bacteria and diseased not surprisingly. Pettenkofer was of the opinion that the environmental conditions of considerably greater importance for the development of disease than the mere presence of pathogens. He and some of his students who repeated the experiment, affected only slightly or not, which saw confirmed Pettenkofer. However, he was wrong insofar as he took a particular " contagiöses element Y ", which - like a chemical reaction - the emergence of a disease possible in the first. Today's standard in epidemiology site visit and extensive statistical detection and evaluation of disease events was introduced by Pettenkofer and his students.

Pettenkofer worked strictly scientific- experimental. His studies on clothing, heating, ventilation, sewerage and water supply carry more experimental. Like his teacher Liebig v. Pettenkofer was a positivist, that is, he recognized only visible, obtained, for example, in experiments facts as knowledge source.

Pettenkofer underwent an error that continues to resonate today by many people believe that there is a "Breathing Wall ": he stood in early air change measurements in a room determined that the air change rate decreased after the supposed seal all joints less than expected. From this he concluded a significant exchange of air through the brick walls throughout. He probably did not occur to seal the chimney of a furnace in the room. Air exchange is through the walls of the room, so Pettenkofer, a major contribution to cleaning the air.

Pettenkofer published more than 20 monographs and 200 original articles in scientific and medical journals. His merits as a founder of hygiene, pioneer of Environmental Medicine, experimental field researchers, chemists and nutrition physiologist broke new ground; they were and are recognized worldwide. The medicinal chemistry also owes him useful detection methods for sugar, urine contents and arsenic. For his scientific achievements, he was taken on January 24, 1900 in the Prussian Order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts.

After Pettenkofer of traditional hygienic indoor air value is named for CO2 - the Pettenkofer number. Your limit Pettenkofer was at 0.10 %.

Memberships and Honors

  • Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Associate Member (1846), full member (1856 ), President ( 1890-1899 )
  • Bavarian hereditary nobility (1883 ); Title of Excellence (1896 ); Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown (1900)
  • Honorary Citizen of the City of Munich (1872 ); Golden Public Service Medal of the City of Munich (1893 ); Gold Medal of the City of Munich (1899 )
  • Member of Obermedizinalausschusses (1849 )
  • Member of forced lots Society Munich ( 1852)
  • Harben Medal of the Royal Institute of Public Health, England (1897 ); Gold Medal of the Chemical Society
  • The Federal Republic of Germany took the occasion of his 150th birthday out a 5 -D Mark commemorative coin.
  • In Berlin, Friedrichshain -Kreuzberg, a primary school and a street is named after Pettenkofer.
  • The Institute for Hygiene and Medical Microbiology of the University of Munich is named after Pettenkofer.
  • A bacterial species is named after Pettenkofer: Staphylococcus pettenkoferi.

Writings

  • About the presence of a large amount of hippuric acid in Menschenharne, Ann. d Chemistry and Pharmacie 52 (1844 ) 86-90
  • Note on a new reaction on bile and sugar, Ann. d Chemistry and Pharmacie 52 (1844 ) 90-96
  • About the Affinirung of gold and the wide distribution of platinum, Münchn. learned Gazette 24 (1847) 589-598
  • As to the regular spacing of the Aequivalentzahlen the so-called simple radicals, Münchn. Scholars Gazette 30 (1850) 261-272, Ann. d Chemistry and Pharmacie 105 (1858) 187
  • About the difference between the air heater and furnace heating in their development on the composition of the air heated rooms, Polytechn. Journal 119 (1851) 40-51; 282-290
  • Studies and observations on the method of dissemination of cholera. Munich 1855
  • About the main principles of preparation and use of wood illuminating gas, Journal f prakt Chemistry 71 (1857 ), pp. 385-393;
  • Over the air exchange in residential buildings. Munich 1858
  • Concerning the determination of free carbon dioxide in drinking water, J. f prakt Chemistry 82 (1861 ) 32-40
  • Soil and groundwater in its relations with cholera and typhoid. Munich 1869
  • Relations of air to clothing, housing and base: three popular lectures held at the Albert Club in Dresden on 21, 23, and March 25, 1872 (1872 ) Full text.
  • About food in general and about the value of Fleischextracts as a constituent of the human diet in particular, Ann. d Chemistry and Pharmacie 167 (1873) 271-292
  • Lectures on canalisation and dissipation. Munich 1876
  • The soil and its relation to human health, Dtsch. Rundschau 29 (1881) 217-234
  • Illumination of the royal residence theater in Munich with gas and electric light, Arch f Hygiene 1 (1883) 384-388
  • The contamination of the Isar by the Schwemmsystem of Munich. Munich 1890
Old Bavarian Donaumoos Natural science Amalgam (chemistry) Pedology (soil study) Positivism Air changes per hour Wittelsbacher Brunnen (Lenbachplatz) Obverse and reverse Excellency Merit Order of the Bavarian Crown Neue Deutsche Biographie Integrated Authority File
559219
de