2 D. NACHMANSOHN VOL. 4 (195O) 



carbohydrate cycle has been called the Pasteur-Meyerhof reaction. The carbohydrate 

 cycle was the first one to be demonstrated but the idea of cyclic processes in cellular 

 mechanisms has since become more and more generalized. Today it is familiar to every 

 biochemist and an integral part of our thinking. 



The discovery of Otto Meyerhof and his students that some phosphorylated 

 compounds are rich in energy led to a revolution, not only of our concepts of muscular 

 contraction, but of the entire significance of celular metabolism. A continuously in- 

 creasing number of enzymatic reactions are becoming known in which the energy of 

 adenosine triphosphate, the compound isolated by his associate Lohmann, provides 

 the energy for endergonic synthesis reactions. The importance of this discovery for the 

 understanding of cellular mechanisms is generally recognized and can hardly be over- 

 estimated. 



In 1925 Meyerhof succeeded in extracting the glycolytic enzyme system from 

 muscle, retracing a pathway which Buchner and Harden and Young had explored 

 in yeast. This proved to be a decisive step for the analysis of glycolysis. Meyerhof and 

 his associates were able to reconstruct in vitro the main steps of the complicated chain 

 of reactions leading from glycogen to lactic acid. They verified some and extended 

 other parts of the scheme proposed by Gustav Embden in 1932, shortly before his death. 



The few examples given may suffice to indicate not only the brilliance but also the 

 wide scope of his achievements. A real appreciation of his work is impossible within a 

 few introductory remarks. Meyerhof has always been driven by the true pioneer 

 spirit. His open and critical mind quickly grasped new developments. When, in 1929, 

 EiNAR LuNDSGAARD found that contraction in a monoiodoacetate poisoned muscle 

 occurs without lactic acid formation, Meyerhof rapidly accepted the evidence which 

 was built essentially on his own line of approach. This rapid change of his views 

 shows the strength of his scientific personality and was all the more remarkable since 

 for many years he had vigorously supported the idea that lactic acid formation was 

 the primary step. 



After the rise to power of the Nazis, Meyerhof, like other Jewish scientists, had 

 to leave Germany. In 1938 he went to Paris where he was warmly welcomed and well 

 received. By the combined efforts of the late Jean Perrin, Professor Rene Wurmser 

 and Professor Henri Laugier, he was appointed Director of Research at the University 

 of Paris and was able to continue his research in the Institut de Biologic Physico- 

 Chimique. When the Nazi hordes invaded- France, he had to flee again under most 

 difficult circumstances, and came to the United States at the end of 1940. Here he was 

 appointed Research Professor of Physiological Chemistry in the School of Medicine of 

 the University of Pennsylvania, a position he holds at present. In spite of all difficulties 

 his creative spirit is unbroken, as shown by the great number of his publications during 

 the past few years, concerning especially intermediary metabolism, the purification 

 and properties of adenosine triphosphate, the free energy of phosphorylated compounds, 

 and various other subjects. 



In spite of his intense scientific activity, Meyerhof's interests have never been 

 limited to science. The extraordinarily wide scope of his nonscientific activities shows 

 best his rich personality. From his student years on he had been not only interested but 

 actively engaged in philosophy. He was closely associated with the Nelson group in 

 Gottingen. He devoted much time to a critical analysis of Goethe's scientific work and 

 presented recently at the Goethe Bicentennial Celebration of the Rudolph Virchow 



