I asked:
> In connection
>with the inital observation that alcoholic fermentation can be observed in
>cell-free extracts of yeast, biochemistry books give one of two basic
>accounts (which siggests that they are all working from two common sources):
>1. That it was discovered by the Buchner brothers (both with and without an
>umlaut on the u).
>2. That it was discovered by Eduard Buchner (no umlaut) in 1897.
>>Which is more accurate, and what about the umlaut?
Thanks to those who replied (either personally or to the group), including
the suggestions of sources to check. The answers appear to be:
1. There is no umlaut in Buchner in this case (checked by Stefan Schuster).
2. There were two brothers who worked on this, Hans (the elder) and Eduard.
3. The idea for the experiments came from Hans; both carried out work on
it, together and separately, but the account of the definitive result was
written by Eduard alone in 1897. There is a detailed account in Florkin &
Stott's Comprehensive Biochemistry, History of Biochemistry, Part III (as
pointed out to me by Benno Hess).
4. The results were not particularly well-received at the time.
=========================================================
David Fell,
School of Biological & Molecular Sciences,
Oxford Brookes University,
Oxford OX3 0BP, Tel. +44 (0)1865 483247
UK FAX +44 (0)1865 484017
daf at bms.brookes.ac.uk
