Rudolf Buchheim

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(1820 - 1879)
Heischkel-Artelt, Edith, „Buchheim, Rudolf Richard“, in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 2 (1955), S. 701 [Onlinefassung]
http://drw.saw-leipzig.de/30162.html

Synthetic organic chemistry was born in 1828, when Friedrich Wohler synthesized urea from inorganic substances and thus demolished the vital force theory. The birth date of pharmacology is not as clear-cut. In the early 19th century, physiologists performed many pharmacologic studies. Thus, François Magendie studied the action of nux vomica (a strychnine-containing plant drug) on dogs, and showed that the spinal cord was the site of its convulsant action. His work was presented to the Paris Academy in 1809. In 1842, Claude Bernard discovered that the arrow poison curare acts at the neuromuscular junction to interrupt the stimulation of muscle by nerve impulses.

Nevertheless, pharmacology is held to have emerged as a separate science only when the first university chair was established. According to Walter Sneader, this occurred in 1847, when Rudolf Buchheim was appointed professor of pharmacology at the University of Dorpat in Estonia (then a part of Russia). Lacking outside funding, Buchheim built a laboratory at his own expense in the basement of his home. Although Buchheim is credited with turning the purely descriptive and empirical study of medicines into an experimental science, his reputation is overshadowed by that of his student, Oswald Schmiedeberg.

Stanley Scheindlin, D.Sc.

American Chemical Society (ACS) 2001

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Cross-listing: Chemistry Tree