A RETROSPECT IN BIOCHEMISTRY 



CHARLES A. DOREMUS 



To the University of Pennsylvania belongs the honor of found- 

 ing, in 1765, the first medical school in this country, and to Dr. 

 Benjamin Rush, the eminent physician, that of being the first Ameri- 

 can Professor of chemistry. He was succeeded by Dr. James 

 Hutchinson and, on his death, in 1794, Dr. Rush offered the chair 

 to Joseph Priestley, who had emigrated to this country, landing in 

 New York on June 4 of that year, and who had taken up his resi- 

 dence in Northumberland, Pa. Priestley, after due consideration 

 declined the honor, largely because it would have necessitated his 

 being away from his family in the winter. 



The discoverer of "vital air" or oxygen; of the power of the 

 plant to so act on the carbon dioxide of the expired air under the 

 influence of sunlight, as to render the air again respirable — "to 

 mend the air" as Dr. Franklin put it — is thus closely linked with 

 the beginnings of biochemistry in this country. 



The Chemical Society of Philadelphia was founded in 1792, 

 and Dr. Priestley was deeply interested in its welfare. 



It was before this Society that in 1801, Dr. Robert Hare, then 

 but twenty, read his memoir on the oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe. He 

 showed what intense heat, sufficient to fuse platinum and to render 

 the Oxides of the metals of the earths brilliantly incandescent, could 

 be obtained through the union of these gases. He subsequently 

 became the professor of chemistry at the medical school of the 

 University of Pennsylvania. 



We are indebted to Priestley for the isolation not only of 

 oxygen, but also of nitrous oxide, ammonia, hydrochloric acid, 

 sulphur dioxide, and Silicon fluoride while in England, and for the 

 discovery of carbon monoxide while at Northumberland, Pa. He 

 also investigated nitric oxide, and carbon dioxide, the latter in 

 relation to respiration and combustion. The interdependency of 

 animal and plant life was established through his researches. 



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