Christiaan Eijkman

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Christiaan Eijkman
Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (1929)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysiology

Christiaan Eijkman (

Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1929 for the discovery of vitamins
.

Biography

Early life and education

Christiaan Eijkman was born on 11 August 1858, at Nijkerk, Netherlands as the seventh child of Christiaan Eijkman, the headmaster of a local school, and Johanna Alida Pool. His elder brother Johann Frederik Eijkman (1851–1915) was also a chemist.

A year later, in 1859, the Eijkman family moved to Zaandam, where his father was appointed head of a newly founded school for advanced elementary education. It was here that Christiaan and his brothers received their early education. In 1875, after taking his preliminary examinations, Eijkman became a student at the Military Medical School of the University of Amsterdam, where he was trained as a medical officer for the Netherlands Indies Army, passing through all his examinations with honours.

From 1879 to 1881, he was an assistant of T. Place, Professor of Physiology, during which time he wrote his thesis On Polarization of the Nerves, which gained him his doctoral degree, with honours, on 13 July 1883.

Career

Christiaan Eijkman

In 1883, Eijkman left the

Tjilatjap, a small village on the south coast of Java, and at Padang Sidempoean in Northern Sumatra. It was at Tjilatjap that he caught malaria
, which later so impaired his health that in 1885 he had to return to Europe on sick-leave.

For Eijkman this was to prove a lucky event, as it enabled him to work in E. Forster's laboratory in

Beriberi
, a disease which at that time was causing havoc in that region.

In 1887, Pekelharing and Winkler were recalled, but before their departure Pekelharing proposed to the Governor General that the laboratory which had been temporarily set up for the Commission in the Military Hospital in Batavia should be made permanent. This proposal was readily accepted, and Christiaan Eijkman was appointed its first director. Now he was able to devote himself entirely to science.

Eijkman was Director of the "Geneeskundig Laboratorium" (Medical Laboratory) from 15 January 1888 to 4 March 1896, and during that time he made a number of his most important researches. These dealt first of all with the physiology of people living in tropical regions. He was able to demonstrate that a number of theories had no factual basis. Firstly he proved that in the blood of Europeans living in the tropics the number of red corpuscles, the specific gravity, the serum, and the water content, undergo no change, at least when the blood is not affected by disease which will ultimately lead to anaemia. Comparing the metabolism of the European with that of the native, he found that in the tropics as well in the temperate zone, this is entirely governed by the work carried out. Neither could he find any disparity in respiratory metabolism, perspiration, and temperature regulation. Thus Eijkman put an end to a number of speculations on the acclimatization of Europeans in the tropics which had hitherto necessitated the taking of various precautions.

Greatest work

Eijkman had been sent to the

polished rice lacked a dietary component found in unpolished rice
, and that beriberi was caused by depriving the body of this component, which he called "the anti-beriberi factor". Subsequently, Eijkman was able to prove that the disease was not caused by blood contamination, respiratory metabolism, perspiration, or seasonal or temperature variation. He suspected the disease was caused by an unknown bacterium.

Eijkman was unable to continue his research due to ill health, but a study by his friend

Sir Frederick Hopkins
. Funk, perhaps unfairly, was never given full credit for his work.

In addition to his work on beriberi, he occupied himself with other problems such as arach

fermentation
, and indeed still had time to write two textbooks for his students at the Java Medical School, one on physiology and the other on organic chemistry.

Later life and death

In 1898 he became successor to G. van Overbeek de Meyer, as Professor in Hygiene and Forensic Medicine at Utrecht. His inaugural speech was entitled Over Gezondheid en Ziekten in Tropische Gewesten (On health and diseases in tropical regions). At Utrecht, Eijkman turned to the study of

haemolysis
, whereby he could demonstrate the hydrolysis of fats under the influence of lipases.

Eijkman did not confine himself to the University. He also engaged himself in problems of water supply, housing, school hygiene, physical education. As a member of the Gezondheidsraad (Health Council) and the Gezondheidscommissie (Health Commission), he participated in the struggle against alcoholism and tuberculosis. He was the founder of the Vereeniging tot Bestrijding van de Tuberculose (Society for the struggle against tuberculosis ).

He died in Utrecht, on 5 November 1930, after a protracted illness.

Awards and legacy

In 1907, Eijkman was appointed Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, after having been Correspondent since 1895.[4] The Dutch Government conferred upon him several orders of knighthood, whereas on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his professorship a fund was established to enable the awarding of the Eijkman Medal. But the crown of all his work was the award of the Nobel Prize in 1929.

Eijkman was holder of the John Scott Medal, Philadelphia, and foreign associate of the

Royal Sanitary Institute
in London.

To honor his dedication, the government of Indonesia named his research center on pathology and bacteriology the

Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology
.

Personal life

In 1883, before his departure to the Indies, Eijkman married Aaltje Wigeri van Edema, who died in 1886. In Batavia, Professor Eijkman married Bertha Julie Louise van der Kemp in 1888; a son, Pieter Hendrik, who became a physician, was born in 1890.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Eijkman, Christiaan". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press.[dead link]
  2. ^ "Eijkman". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  3. ^ "Christiaan Eijkman - Nobel Lecture: Antineuritic Vitamin and Beriberi".
  4. ^ "Christiaan Eijkman (1858 - 1930)". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 17 July 2015.

External links