Emil Alexander de Schweinitz. 

 1864-1904. 



EMIL ALEXANDER DE SCHWEINITZ was born in Salem, 

 North Carolina, in the year 1864. He was a son of Bishop de 

 Schweinitz of the Moravian church, and a grandson of the Rev. 

 Lewis David de Schweinitz, who is well known on account of 

 his many additions to the knowledge of fungi and other plants 

 in the United States, Emil Alexander de Schweinitz received 

 his early education at the Nazareth Hall High School and the 

 Moravian College of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and subse- 

 quently entered the University of North Carolina from which 

 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. From the 

 University of North Carolina he went to the University of Ber- 

 lin, and later entered the Universit} 7 of Gottingen, receiving from 

 the last-named institution the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 



During the time spent in Germany the greater part of his 

 labors was devoted to the study of chemistry and allied sub- 

 jects. Upon returning to the United States he was engaged to 

 teach chemistry in Tufts College, Massachusetts, and after a 

 short while was made Professor of Chemistry in the Agricul- 

 tural and Mechanical College of Kentucky. In 1888 he re- 

 ceived an appointment as an assistant in the Division of Chem- 

 istry of the United States Department of Agriculture. On 

 January i, 1890, he was transferred from the Division of Chem- 

 istry to the Bureau of Animal Industry in the Department of 

 Agriculture, and was placed in charge of the biochemical re- 

 searches which were begun by the last named bureau on that 

 date. The work along these lines increased so rapidly that a 

 separate Division of Biochemistry in the Bureau of Animal In- 

 dustry was created and Dr. de Schweinitz was placed at its 

 head. This position he occupied until the day of his death. 



After entering the Bureau of Animal Industry his labors were 

 confined almost entirely to research work concerning the meta- 

 bolic products of disease-producing bacteria, the chemical com- 



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