KLUYVER S CONTRIBUTIONS TO MICROBIOLOGY AND BIOCHEMISTRY 



rarely cited any longer. This, I believe, should be ascribed to the fact 

 that they have been so completely assimilated that it has become 

 superfluous to reiterate the basis on which present-day biochemistry is 

 founded, just as for over a century chemists have stopped referring to 

 Lavoisier and Dalton except in papers dealing with the history of 

 their science. 



When, in 1922, Kluyver officially assumed his duties as Professor of 

 general and applied microbiology at the Technological University of 

 Delft, Holland, the knowledge of the chemical activities of micro- 

 organisms was virtually restricted to an awareness of a large number 

 of more or less specific transformations that can be brought about by 

 the diverse and numerous representative types. Except in a few insti- 

 tutions the study of biochemistry itself appeared to consist in little more 

 than the development and application of methods for the analysis of 

 urine and blood. Within ten years Kluyver succeeded in welding to- 

 gether a vast amount of detailed information into a coordinated picture, 

 whose strong and simple outlines encompassed the totality of the chemi- 

 cal manifestations of all living organisms, and whose structure brought 

 into strong relief the dynamic aspects of these processes. In another 

 ten years the direction of biochemical research throughout the world 

 had been guided into the paths mapped out by Kluyver. And the spec- 

 tacular successes scored in enlarging and intensifying biochemical un- 

 derstanding through investigations with appropriate micro-organisms, 

 an approach repeatedly practiced and advocated by Kluyver, had con- 

 vinced an increasing number of biochemists of the potentialities of 

 such studies, with the logical result that the post- 1940 biochemical 

 literature has become predominantly occupied by publications on va- 

 rious aspects of microbiological chemistry. These transformations at- 

 test to the great influence exerted by Kluyver's contributions; verily, 

 it is difficult to overestimate their importance ! 



It is the purpose of this essay to trace the main stages of Kluyver's 

 scientific development, and to indicate the wide area over which his 

 fertile and philosophical mind was allowed to range during the 34 

 years of his professorship. It may then become evident that the many 

 honours he received, and the great esteem in which he was held were 

 richly deserved. But it must not be believed that his scientific em- 

 inence alone is responsible for the deep attachment that he engen- 

 dered in his friends, collaborators, and pupils alike. For he also pos- 



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