| Max Von Pettenkofer |
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Information AboutMax Von Pettenkofer |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT MAX JOSEPH VON PETTENKOFER | |
| 1818 births | |
| pettenkofer, max joseph von | |
| 1901 deaths | |
| german chemists | |
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Two years later he was chosen extraordinary professor of chemistry in the medical faculty, in 1853 he received the ordinary professorship, and in 1865 he became also professor of Hygiene . In 1894 he retired from active work, and on the 10th of February 1901 he shot himself in a fit of Depression at his home on the Starnberger See , near Munich. In his earlier years he devoted himself to Chemistry , both theoretical and applied, publishing papers on the preparation of Gold and Platinum , numerical relations between the Atomic Weight s of analogous Element s, the formation of Aventurine glass, the manufacture of illuminating gas from wood, the preservation of oil-paintings, among other things. The reaction known by his name for the detection of Bile acids was published in 1844. In his widely used method for the quantitative determination of Carbonic Acid the gaseous mixture is shaken up with baryta or Lime Water of known strength and the change in Alkalinity ascertained by means of Oxalic Acid . But his name is most familiar in connection with his work in practical hygiene, as an apostle of good water, fresh air and proper Sewage disposal. His attention was drawn to this subject by the unhealthy condition in Munich in the 19th Century . Pettenkofer was also a proponent of the "ground water theory" regarding the spread of epidemic Asiatic Cholera . He believed that the fermentation of organic matter in the subsoil released the cholera germ into the air which then infected the most susceptible (those with poor diet, constitution, etc). Pettenkofer was not, however, a contagionist because he adhered to the belief that cholera spread via the atmosphere rather than directly from person to person. This is essentially an updated theory of miasmatism. Pettenkofer gave vigorous expression to his views on hygiene and disease in numerous books and papers; he was an editor of the ''Zeitschrift für Biologie'' from 1865 to 1882, and of the ''Archiv des Hygiene'' from 1883 to 1894. REFERENCES |
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