German physiologist (1854?1917)
Emil von Behring
(
German pronunciation:
[?eːmiːl
f?n
?beː??ŋ]
ⓘ
;
Emil Adolf von Behring
), born
Emil Adolf Behring
(15 March 1854 ? 31 March 1917), was a German
physiologist
who received the 1901
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
, the first one awarded in that field, for his discovery of a
diphtheria
antitoxin
. He was widely known as a "saviour of children", as diphtheria used to be a major cause of child death.
[1]
His work with the disease, as well as tetanus, has come to bring him most of his fame and acknowledgment.
[2]
He was honoured with
Prussian nobility
in 1901, henceforth being known by the surname "von Behring."
Biography
[
edit
]
Behring was born in Hansdorf, Kreis Rosenberg,
Province of Prussia
(now
Ławice
,
Iława County
,
Poland
). His father was a schoolmaster; the family had 13 children.
Between 1874 and 1878, he studied medicine at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Akademie in
Berlin
, an academy for military doctors, since his family could not afford the university.
[3]
As a military doctor, he studied the action of
iodoform
. Due to his work on Neurotomia opticociliaris (or optociliary neurotomy), Behring became a doctor from the institute and later was able to pass his exam for licensed work in his area of Marburg.
[4]
In 1878, his service required him to be sent to Poland where he focused on septic diseases. His potential was becoming well known to many. This led to his commanded return to Prussia to study with Robert Koch.
[5]
He was employed by the military as he received his grants and money from the Prussian army. For each semester of education, he owed one year of service as a military surgeon. This accumulated to two years, from 1881 to 1883 as he served under the Second Hussar regiment.
[4]
A lesser known part of his studies was his research in
ophthalmology
and how he furthered the understanding of the eye and its diseases. He wrote a paper during his time at Wicherkiewicz's hospital in
Poznan
from 1881 to 1883 on an eye tumor case that ended up with the patient dying from
leukemia
, but it did allow for much needed research on treatments for the eye and what the preferred pathways for surgery would be. He learned under some of the great ophthalmologists such as Carl Ernst Schweigger and Wilhelm Uhthoff, leading to his interest in the subject and his writing his doctoral dissertation on it.
[4]
In 1890 he published an article with
Kitasato Shibasabur?
reporting that they had developed "antitoxins" against both
diphtheria
and
tetanus
. They had injected diphtheria and tetanus toxins into
guinea-pigs
, goats and horses; when these animals developed immunity, they derived antitoxins (now known to contain
antibodies
) from their
serum
. This process would be called serum therapy by him at the time as he described it as a way to induce permanent immunity or "to stimulate the body's internal disinfection".
[6]
These antitoxins could protect against and cure the diseases in non-immunized animals. In 1892 he started the first human trials of the diphtheria antitoxin, but they were unsuccessful. Successful treatment started in 1894, after the production and quantification of antitoxin had been optimized.
[7]
During 1894, Behring was also awarded the
Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh
.
In 1895 he became Professor of
Hygienics
within the Faculty of Medicine at the
University of Marburg
, a position held for the rest of his life. He and the pharmacologist
Hans Horst Meyer
had their laboratories in the same building, and Behring stimulated Meyer's interest in the mode of action of
tetanus toxin
.
[8]
Behring won the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1901 for the development of
serum therapies
against diphtheria. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1902.
[9]
In 1904 he founded the Behringwerke in Marburg, a company to produce antitoxins and vaccines.
At the International Tuberculosis Congress in 1905 he announced that he had discovered "a substance proceeding from the virus of tuberculosis". This substance, which he designated "T C", plays the important part in the immunizing action of his "bovivaccine", which prevents
bovine
tuberculosis
. He tried unsuccessfully to obtain a protective and therapeutic agents for humans.
[10]
Laboratory of 1913 in the Wannkopfstraße in Marburg
Behring died at
Marburg
,
Hessen-Nassau
, on 31 March 1917. His name survived in the
Dade Behring
organisation (now part of the
Siemens Healthineers
), in
CSL Behring
, a manufacturer of plasma-derived biotherapies, in
Novartis
Behring and in the Emil von Behring Prize of the
University of Marburg
, the highest endowed medicine award in Germany.
His
Nobel Prize medal
is now kept on display at the
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum
in
Geneva
.
Controversy
[
edit
]
Von Behring is believed to have cheated
Paul Ehrlich
out of recognition and financial reward in relation to collaborative research in diphtheria. The two men developed a diphtheria serum by repeatedly injecting the deadly toxin into a horse. The serum was used effectively during an epidemic in Germany. A chemical company preparing to undertake commercial production and marketing of the diphtheria serum offered a contract to both men, but von Behring manoeuvered to claim all the considerable financial rewards for himself. To add insult to injury, only Behring received the first Nobel Prize in Medicine, in 1901, for his contributions.
[11]
However, Ehrlich went on to win the 1908 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his contribution to immunology.
[12]
Villa Behring (burgundy) on Capri
Behring mausoleum in Marburg
Personal life
[
edit
]
On 29 December 1896 Behring married the then twenty-year-old Else Spinola (1876-1936), who was a daughter of
Bernhard Spinola
[
de
]
, the director of the
Charite
hospital in Berlin, and a
Jewish
-born mother ? Elise Spinola, born Bendix ? who had converted to Christianity upon her marriage.
[13]
They had six sons. They held their honeymoon at villa "Behring" on
Capri
1897, where Behring owned a vacation home. In 1909?1911, the Russian writer
Maxim Gorky
lived at this villa.
Publications
[
edit
]
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Emil von Behring
on Nobelprize.org
The Immune System: In Defence of our Lives, nobelprize.org
- ^
Bynum, W. F. (2007-04-01).
"DEREK S. LINTON. Emil von Behring: Infectious Disease, Immunology, Serum Therapy. (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, number 255.) Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. 2005. Pp. xi, 580. $65.00"
.
The American Historical Review
.
112
(2): 605?606.
doi
:
10.1086/ahr.112.2.605
.
ISSN
0002-8762
.
- ^
"Emil von Behring - Biographical"
.
www.nobelprize.org
. Retrieved
2018-07-23
.
- ^
a
b
c
Grzybowski, Andrzej; Wilhelm, Helmut (15 February 2012).
"Little known ophthalmic interests of Emil von Behring, the first Nobel Prize Laureate in Medicine or Physiology"
.
Acta Ophthalmologica
.
91
(4): 381?384.
doi
:
10.1111/j.1755-3768.2011.02343.x
.
PMID
22336320
.
S2CID
22857078
.
- ^
"Sondermarken zur Ehrlich-Behring-Feier: Paul Ehrlich; Emil von Behring"
.
Nachrichten aus Chemie und Technik
.
2
(13?14): 136. 2010-04-23.
doi
:
10.1002/nadc.19540021309
.
ISSN
0027-738X
.
- ^
Raju, Tonse NK (4 July 1998).
"The Nobel Chronicles"
.
The Lancet
.
352
(9121): 75.
doi
:
10.1016/s0140-6736(05)79565-9
.
ISSN
0140-6736
.
PMID
9800790
.
S2CID
54291542
.
- ^
Kaufmann, Stefan H. E. (2017-03-08).
"Remembering Emil von Behring: from Tetanus Treatment to Antibody Cooperation with Phagocytes"
.
mBio
.
8
(1): e00117?17.
doi
:
10.1128/mbio.00117-17
.
PMC
5347343
.
PMID
28246359
.
- ^
Legrum, Wolfgang; Al-Toma, Adnan J.; Netter, Karl J. (1992).
125 Jahre Pharmakologisches Institut der Philipps-Universitat Marburg
. Marburg: N. G. Elwert Verlag.
ISBN
3770809858
.
- ^
"Book of Members, 1780?2010: Chapter B"
(PDF)
. American Academy of Arts and Sciences
. Retrieved
30 May
2011
.
- ^
Emil von Behring
Serum Therapy in Therapeutics and Medical Science
. Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1901. nobelprize.org
- ^
Morton A. Meyers, M.D.
(2007).
Happy Accidents: Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs
. Arcade Publishing.
ISBN
9781559708197
.
happy accidents.
- ^
Paul Ehrlich
on
NobelPrize.org
- ^
Derek S. Linton,
Emil von Behring: Infectious Disease, Immunology, Serum Therapy
, American Philosophical Society, 2005, p. 198
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