Gustav von Bunge
Gustav von Bunge | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 19 January 1844 |
| Died | 5 November 1920 (aged 76) |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | Research regarding alcoholism |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physiological chemistry |
| Institutions | University of Basel |
| Notable students | Hans Hunziker |
Gustav Piers Alexander von Bunge (19 January 1844, Dorpat – 5 November 1920, Basel) was a German physiologist known for work in the field of nutrition physiology. He was the son of botanist Alexander von Bunge (1803–1890).
Biography
[edit]In 1874 he received his degree in chemistry at the University of Dorpat, followed by a doctorate in medicine at the University of Leipzig in 1882. At Dorpat, he had as instructors, Friedrich Bidder (1810–1894) and Carl Schmidt (1822–1894). In 1885 he became an associate professor, and from 1886 until his death in 1920, he served as a professor of physiological chemistry at the University of Basel.
Among his more important studies were the interplay of potassium and sodium within the body; the association of sodium chloride with metabolism, and analytic studies of iron metabolism.[1]
He was the author of treatises on alcoholic spirits, of which he denounced as a "threat to health and heredity".[2] His name is associated with "Bunge's rule", a nutritional law based on his research of human and animal milk – "that nutrients in milk are proportional to the growth of the offspring".[3]
However, he rejected the entire idea of vitamins and vitamin deficiencies; he opposed the doctoral dissertation of Nikolai Lunin regarding Vitamin C and scurvy. [4]
Selected publications
[edit]- Der Vegetarianismus (Berlin, 1885; 2nd ed., 1900)
- The Alcohol Question, 1886.
- Text-Book of Physiological and Pathological Chemistry, (translated from the fourth German edition by Florence A. Starling and edited by Ernest H. Starling, 1902).[5]
- Alcoholic Poisoning and Degeneration, 1905.
- "Text-book of organic chemistry for medical students", 1907.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ JN Nutrition (biography)
- ^ Health, Race and German Politics Between National Unification and Nazism by Paul Weindling.
- ^ New Physis
- ^ Gratzer W (2006). "9. The quarry run to earth". Terrors of the table: the curious history of nutrition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-920563-9. Retrieved 27 October 2024.
- ^ "Review of Text-Book of Physiological and Pathological Chemistry by Prof. G. Bunge, 2nd English edition, translated from the 4th German edition by Florence A. Starling, and edited by Prof. E. H. Starling, F.R.S." The Athenaeum (3942): 629. May 16, 1903.
- ^ Google Books (publications)
Further reading
[edit]- Clive M. McCay. (1953). Gustav B. von Bunge: (January 19, 1844 – November 5, 1920). The Journal of Nutrition 49 (1): 1–19.
