ALEXANDER SCHMIDT' E. JORPES Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden (Translated by M. Cederlund)
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1s now 90 years since Alexander Schmidt announced a new theory concerning blood coagulation before the Berlin Academy of Science. At that time he was working under Hoppe-Seyler in the chemical department of the Virehon- pathological institute in Berlin. This theory has n.it,hstood every subsequent criticism and even in our days it has proved useful for therapeutic work. According to the theory fibrin is formed through an enzymatic denaturation of fibrinogen dissolved in the plasma of the blood stream. Thrombin, the active , T h e biographical data appearing in this article are taken of the l ~ t anniversary h from a memorial issued the birth of Alrxander Schmidt. This was compiled from letters, notes, and oral traditions within his family and was generously resented to the author, together with the unique photograph, taken hy Dr. Erhard Schmidt, professor of mathematics a t the Hnmholdt Universitat in Berlin, a son of Alemnder Schmidt.
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enzyme, is formed from an inactive precursor, prothrombin, which also is to be found in the plasma and which is activated by zpoplastic substances from the white corpuscles and from the t,issnes. Although thrombocytes were not known at t,he time, the theory is practically the same as that which me have t,oday about coagulation. I t is interesting to know that our knowledge about the coagulation process originated with Virchom, who in 1846 explained the connection between pulmonary embolism and peripheral veinous thrombosis. He was a man of foresight and incorporated a chemical section in his new pathological institute of which the young doctor Felix Hoppe-Seyler was appointed head in 1854. During a period of 30 years Alexander Schmidt completed the study of the coagulation of the blood which he began under Hoppe-Seyler, Schmidt belonged to an old German family. Early in the eighteenth century the Prince Elector, later Kmg Fredrik Wilhelm I of Pmssia, created the Prnssian military drill syst,em, called by Voltaire Bulgarian drill. Johan Heinrich Schmidt, a young candidate for Holy Orders, found it necessary to escape from a small village in east Prussia to the Russian side of the border in order to avoid being called to the colors. He was received by his fellow believers on the island of Osel where he earned his bread by preaching the Gospel. (Happy days when priests fled to Russia for refuge!) His descendants followed the same vocation and one of his grandsons, Alexander, was vicar of the island of Moon with the island of &el as an annex. Here his son Alexander, born in 1831, grew up with his ten brothers and sisters, all of whom received their elementary education in the prosperous vicarage. Alexander received his secondary school education at Reval. In 1850 he came to the university of Dorpat to devote himself to historical studies. After having lost the sight of one of his eyes in a fencing duel of the conventional type between German students, he had to change his studies in order to make a living and took up medicine. He passed his medical examination a t Dorpat. This university has a history marked by extraordinary vicissitudes, as has the town of Dorpat itself, the cultural centre of Esthonia. Dorpat is the German name of the town, the Esthonian name is Tartu, and the Russian is Jurjef. The city, as well as the country as a whole, has had an exceedingly checkered history. It has changed hands between Russia, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, and Poland, in accordance with the changes in the power balance in the Baltic. As early as 1030 was~ taken for the first time by the Rusd the city ~
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sians under Grand Duke Jaroslav I. I t has been repeatedly plundered and ransacked and its burghers were deported to Siberia the last time, following the Russian occupation of the Baltic states during World War 11. During the seventeenth century the country belonged to Sweden. As a memorial of the Swedish days, Esthonia has a Court of Civil and Criminal Appeal and a university at Dorpat. The charter of foundation of the latter was signed by King Gustavus Adolphus at his camp at Nurnberg during the 30 years war a few months before his death at Lutzen in 1632. Esthonia was ceded to Russia in 1721, but not until 1802 did Czar Alexander I revive the university at Dorpat, mainly with the aid of German scholare. During the following 90 years the university was almost exclusively German, particularly the medical faculty, although physicians were trained for service in Russia. Many famous Germans began their career as teachers there, such as the surgeon E. von Bergmann, Wilhelm Ostwald the chemist, 0. Schmiedeberg the pharmacolo-
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gist, Rauher the anatomist, and Ernst Kraepelin the psychiatrist. Alexander Schmidt, who hailed from Esthonia, remained at Dorpat. After many years of study in Germany Schmidt hecame a lecturer at Dorpat in 1862 and became professor of physiology in 1869, a position which he held for 25 years. He published his scientific results in his pupils' doctor's treatises. In all, there were about 50 such treatises, mainly dealing with the coagulation of the blood. They were summarized in two monographs of which one, "Zur Blutlehre," was published at Leipzig in 1892, and the other, "Weitere Beitrage zur Blutlehre," posthumously at Wiesbaden in 1895. In 1885 Schmidt was elected chancellor of the university of Dorpat for a period of four years. At about this time the Russification process had begun in Esthonia and Schmidt was the last German chancellor to be elected by the collegium. Alexander Schmidt died in 1894 and was buried in the cemetery of St. Johns at Dorpat.
