Carl Warburg

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Carl Warburg M.D.
Born
Warburg's Tincture
Scientific career
FieldsMedicine

Carl Warburg (c. 1805–1892

Warburg's Tincture', a medicine well known in the 19th century for treating fevers, including malaria.[2][3][4][5]

Early life and education

Carl Warburg was born circa 1805 in

University of Heidelberg.[11]

Professional career

Carl Warburg was a physician with a keen interest in botany. His life and career were dominated by Warburg's Tincture - a

pharmaceutical fever medicine which he invented in 1834 in British Guiana (now Guyana
), and which he manufactured, promoted and sold for several decades.

Warburg's Tincture

Further information:
Warburg's Tincture

Warburg's

Martindale: The Extra Pharmacopoeia in 1883, and continued to be included until the 1928 edition.[2][3][4][13][14][15][16]

Friends in high places

In August 1850, Carl Warburg received an invitation to and attended an official audience with the court of

Prince Metternich, another Austrian politician and statesman, who was one of the most important diplomats of the era. In addition, Warburg had been received by Ferdinand I of Austria.[12]

Laboratory near Sutton, Surrey in 1850s

During the 1850s and possibly 1860s, Carl Warburg utilised and owned purpose-built laboratory premises near modern-day Belmont, Sutton, in Downs Road.[17] This was established in the late 1990s, by a local historian who also identified the exact location. This laboratory was situated in the vicinity of where the Sutton branch of the Royal Marsden Hospital now stands. The approximate location is shown on this map: [1]. The reason for the laboratory being located here was related to secrecy considerations: in the mid 19th-century this area of the present London Borough of Sutton near Banstead Downs was very remote and lowly populated. This laboratory building was demolished in 1881.[2][17]

Publications

Pamphlets and booklets

  • 1839, London. Specific for fever, now first introduced into Europe (8 pp.)
  • 1846, Vienna. Pharmakologische Notizen über die Wirkung und den Gebrauch der Dr. Warburg'schen vegetabilischen Fiebertinctur (title translates as 'Notes on the pharmacological effect and the use of Dr Warburg's vegetable fever tincture') (c. 24 pp).[18]
  • 1870, London, Warburg Tincture: statement proving by numerous official documents its remarkable curative powers in fevers... (c. 60 pp.)[18]

Countries of residence

Carl Warburg was born and educated in Germany. In the 1830s Warburg lived in British Guiana (Guyana) (South America), travelling there due to "personal circumstances", where he worked as a physician and developed his Warburg's Tincture. When he introduced his tincture into Europe, in 1839, he moved to London, England. In the mid-late 1840s, Warburg lived in Vienna, Austria, where his tincture was being trialled. He left Vienna following the 1848 revolution, moving to London where he resided until his death in 1892. He lived at numerous addresses in London.[2][12][19] Carl Warburg obtained British naturalisation in 1852.[20]

Later life

Carl Warburg lived in poverty in his old age. Writing in 1870 – then aged in his 60s – he stated that he was a "poor man", "impoverished" due to the cost of having produced and donated, over the course of several decades, a total of in excess of 80,000 bottles of his tincture to physicians and hospitals for medical trials, which had a commercial value of many thousands of pounds.[12] In 1878, three years after disclosing the formula of Warburg's Tincture, he was described as living in "deplorable circumstances" and "in need of the commonest necessaries of life".[21][22] In 1882 the British Government gave Warburg £200 in recognition of his work. In 1890, aged 86, Carl Warburg was described as living in "great poverty" with two widowed daughters with children to support; a subscription fund was set up for his benefit.[23]

Marriage and children

Carl Warburg married his first wife, Helena, in c. 1827. They separated in c. 1848. His second wife was Emma with whom he cohabited until they married in c. 1877.[19] He had a daughter (bn. c. 1828) via Helena, and at least eight children via Emma, namely: Margaus (bn. c. 1853), Hermann (bn. 1855), Fritz [aka Frederick] (bn. c. 1858), Carl [aka Charles] (bn. c. 1859), Emma (bn. c. 1861), Florence (bn. c. 1865), Charlotte (bn. c. 1866), and Mectildis (bn. c. 1867).[24][25]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Death certificate
  2. ^ a b c d e Sparkes, Roland. Article on Belmont Local History website BelmontHistory.org.uk Archived 6 August 2022 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 2010-01-03
  3. ^ a b The Lancet, edition 1875-11-13, 'Professor Maclean~~~~, C.B., on the true composition and therapeutic value of Warburg's Tincture', pp. 716–718.
  4. ^ a b c Wootton, A. (1910). Chronicles of Pharmacy, pp. 206–208.
  5. ^ Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, Webester-Online-Dictionary.org[permanent dead link] retrieved 2010-01-05
  6. ^ British census returns – various years
  7. ^ official British Naturalisation papers
  8. ^ Owen, William, 'Warburg's Tincture in Indian Fevers', article Dublin Journal of Medical Science, 1879. pp. 11–16.
  9. ^ Friedenwald, H. (1946), Jewish Luminaries in Medical History
  10. ^ Chernow, Ron, The Warburgs: The Twentieth-century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family.
  11. ^ British census returns, 1851
  12. ^ a b c d Warburg, Carl (1870, London) Warburg Tincture: statement proving by numerous official documents its remarkable curative powers in fevers....
  13. ^ The medico-chirurgical review and journal of medical science, volume 34, 1839, p. 658.
  14. ^ Medical Times, edition 1851-1-4, pp. 700–702, letter from Carl Warburg.
  15. ^ Burton, Sir Richard Francis, and Cameron, Verney Lovett, (1883)To the Gold Coast for gold; a personal narrative, pp. 231–232, 239.
  16. ^ Poser, Charles M.; Bruyn, G. W. (1999). An Illustrated History of Malaria, p. 87.
  17. ^ a b various primary sources, Sutton Local Studies Centre.
  18. ^ a b British Library catalogue
  19. ^ a b British Census – various years
  20. ^ official naturalisation papers, ref. HO 1/44/1396, The National Archives, Kew, England.
  21. ^ The British Medical Journal, edition 1878-9-18
  22. ^ The Times, September 1878, letter from Prof W.C. Maclean
  23. ^ The Chemist and Druggist, June 1890, letter from Sydney Holland, 'A little assistance is asked for Dr Warburg'.
  24. ^ British Census Returns
  25. ^ BMD indexes

Further reading

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