Max Joseph von Pettenkofer (3 December 1818–10 February 1901), Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

n chemist and hygienist, was born in Lichtenheim

Lichtenau

Lichtenau may refer to:In Germany:* Towns and municipalities:**Hessisch Lichtenau**Lichtenau, Baden-Württemberg**Lichtenau, Bavaria**Lichtenau, Saxony**Lichtenau, Westphalia* Localities:**Lichtenau, Feuchtwangen**Lichtenau, Lübbenau...

, near Neuburg an der Donau

Neuburg an der Donau

Neuburg an der Donau, literally Neuburg on the Danube River, is a town which is the capital of the Neuburg-Schrobenhausen district in the state of Bavaria in Germany.-Divisions:The municipality has 16 divisions:-History:...

, now part of Weichering

Weichering

Weichering is a municipality in the district of Neuburg-Schrobenhausen in Bavaria in Germany....

. He was a nephew of Franz Xaver Pettenkofer (1783–1850), who from 1823 was surgeon

Surgery

Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...

 and apothecary

Apothecary

Apothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....

 to the Bavarian court and was the author of some chemical investigations on the vegetable alkaloid

Alkaloid

Alkaloids are a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds that contain mostly basic nitrogen atoms. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Also some synthetic compounds of similar structure are attributed to alkaloids...

s. He studied pharmacy and medicine at Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, where he graduated M.D. in 1843, and after working under Liebig at Gießen

Gießen

Gießen, also spelt Giessen is a town in the German federal state of Hesse, capital of both the district of Gießen and the administrative region of Gießen...

 was appointed chemist to the Munich mint in 1845. Two years later he was chosen extraordinary professor of chemistry in the medical faculty, in 1853 he was made a full professor, and in 1865 he became also professor of hygiene

Hygiene

Hygiene refers to the set of practices perceived by a community to be associated with the preservation of health and healthy living. While in modern medical sciences there is a set of standards of hygiene recommended for different situations, what is considered hygienic or not can vary between...

.

In his earlier years he devoted himself to chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

, both theoretical and applied, publishing papers on the preparation of gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 and platinum

Platinum

Platinum is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pt and an atomic number of 78. Its name is derived from the Spanish term platina del Pinto, which is literally translated into "little silver of the Pinto River." It is a dense, malleable, ductile, precious, gray-white transition metal...

, numerical relations between the atomic weight

Atomic weight

Atomic weight is a dimensionless physical quantity, the ratio of the average mass of atoms of an element to 1/12 of the mass of an atom of carbon-12...

s of analogous element

Chemical element

A chemical element is a pure chemical substance consisting of one type of atom distinguished by its atomic number, which is the number of protons in its nucleus. Familiar examples of elements include carbon, oxygen, aluminum, iron, copper, gold, mercury, and lead.As of November 2011, 118 elements...

s, the formation of aventurine

Aventurine

Aventurine is a form of quartz, characterised by its translucency and the presence of platy mineral inclusions that give a shimmering or glistening effect termed aventurescence....

 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

Bile

Bile or gall is a bitter-tasting, dark green to yellowish brown fluid, produced by the liver of most vertebrates, that aids the process of digestion of lipids in the small intestine. In many species, bile is stored in the gallbladder and upon eating is discharged into the duodenum...

 acids was published in 1844. In his widely used method for the quantitative determination of carbonic acid

Carbonic acid

Carbonic acid is the inorganic compound with the formula H2CO3 . It is also a name sometimes given to solutions of carbon dioxide in water, because such solutions contain small amounts of H2CO3. Carbonic acid forms two kinds of salts, the carbonates and the bicarbonates...

 the gaseous mixture is shaken up with baryta or lime water

Lime water

Limewater is the common name for saturated calcium hydroxide solution. It is sparsely soluble. Its chemical formula is Ca2. Since calcium hydroxide is only sparsely soluble, i.e. ca. 1.5 g per liter at 25 °C, there is no visible distinction to clear water. Attentive observers will notice a slightly...

 of known strength and the change in alkalinity

Alkalinity

Alkalinity or AT measures the ability of a solution to neutralize acids to the equivalence point of carbonate or bicarbonate. The alkalinity is equal to the stoichiometric sum of the bases in solution...

 ascertained by means of oxalic acid

Oxalic acid

Oxalic acid is an organic compound with the formula H2C2O4. This colourless solid is a dicarboxylic acid. In terms of acid strength, it is about 3,000 times stronger than acetic acid. Oxalic acid is a reducing agent and its conjugate base, known as oxalate , is a chelating agent for metal cations...

. It was Pettenkofer who provided the experimental proof that the mysterious haematinum

Purpurin (glass)

Purpurin , sometimes referred to as glass porphyr, is an opaque glass of brownish to lustrous deep-reddish color which in classical antiquity was used for residential luxury objects, mosaics and various decorative purposes...

 of ancient times was in fact a copper-colored glass.

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

Sewage

Sewage is water-carried waste, in solution or suspension, that is intended to be removed from a community. Also known as wastewater, it is more than 99% water and is characterized by volume or rate of flow, physical condition, chemical constituents and the bacteriological organisms that it contains...

 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

Cholera

Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...

. 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

Miasma theory of disease

The miasma theory held that diseases such as cholera, chlamydia or the Black Death were caused by a miasma , a noxious form of "bad air"....

. Based on a self-test with cholera bacteria obtained from Robert Koch

Robert Koch

Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch was a German physician. He became famous for isolating Bacillus anthracis , the Tuberculosis bacillus and the Vibrio cholerae and for his development of Koch's postulates....

 (conducted in the presence of several witnesses on October 7, 1892) it appeared that the bacteria did not have effect.

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 (together with Carl von Voit

Carl von Voit

Carl von Voit was a German physiologist and dietitian.Von Voit was born in Amberg. From 1848 to 1854 he studied medicine in Munich and Würzburg; habilitation in 1857 at the University of Munich, professor of physiology since 1860, as well as curator of the physiological collection.Carl von Voit is...

) from 1865 to 1882, and of the Archiv des Hygiene from 1883 to 1894.

In 1894 he retired from active work, and on 10 February 1901 he shot himself in a fit of depression

Clinical depression

Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...

. He died at his home in the Residenz

Residenz, Munich

The Munich Residenz is the former royal palace of the Bavarian monarchs in the center of the city of Munich, Germany...

 in Munich. He is buried in the Alter Südfriedhof

Alter Südfriedhof

The Alter Südfriedhof is a cemetery in Munich, Germany. It was founded by Duke Albrecht V as a plague cemetery in 1563 about half a kilometer south of the Sendlinger Gate between Thalkirchner and Pestalozzistraße.-History:...

 in Munich.

External links

• Picture, short biography, and bibliography in the Virtual Laboratory
  Virtual Laboratory
  The online project Virtual Laboratory. Essays and Resources on the Experimentalization of Life, 1830-1930, located at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, is dedicated to research in the history of the experimentalization of life...
  
   of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
  Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
  The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin was established in March 1994. Its research is primarily devoted to a theoretically oriented history of science, principally of the natural sciences, but with methodological perspectives drawn from the cognitive sciences and from...