PAUL EHELICH, 1854—1915. 



It is fitting that some account should be given, in the publications of this 

 Society, of a Fellow so eminent in Science and of an influence so great as 

 Paul Ehrlich. We shall first give the chief facts of his life and afterwards 

 consider the nature and significance of his work. 



Ehrlich was born in 1854 at Strehlen, a small town in Silesia. He was of 

 Jewish extraction, like so many others who have risen to fame, and was a 

 cousin on his mother's side of Carl Weigert, with whom he enjoyed an 

 intimate and valuable friendship, lasting till Weigert's death. Ehrlich's 

 early education was received in his native place, and afterwards in the 

 Gymnasium of Breslau. At Breslau also he attended the University for a 

 semester and then went to Strasburg, where he took up the study of medicine. 

 Amongst his teachers there were Waldeyer, the anatomist, whose attention 

 he attracted by his application of aniline dyes to the staining of tissues, and 

 Biermer, the distinguished physician. After completing his curriculum, he 

 worked for a year in the Pathological Institute, under the stimulating 

 direction of Cohnheim and Heidenhain, and in association with "Weigert, 

 Salomonsen, and Welsh. There is little evidence, however, that he was much 

 swayed by the influence of any one man : certainly his field of work was 

 chosen and laid out by himself. 



In 1878 he went to Berlin, to take up his duties as chief assistant in 

 Ererich's clinique. There he worked for several years and published his 

 papers on haematology (which were the first to establish his reputation) and 

 on intra-vitani staining, etc. The growing science of bacteriology naturally 

 presented many problems which appealed to his bent of mind ; but when 

 engaged with these, he found, in 1888, that he had contracted tubercle and 

 he had to give up work for a time. Fortunately, a satisfactory cure was 

 effected and he was enabled to resume his researches, which were now to be 

 occupied for some years with questions of toxic action, immunity, etc. 



Eeturning to Berlin in 1890, he worked in a laboratory of his own for a 

 time, but afterwards obtained a post in the newly established Institut fiir 

 Infeutionskrankheiten. In 1896, on the establishment of the new Serum 

 Institute, he was appointed Director on the recommendation of Althoff, the 

 Prussian State Minister, who early recognised his genius. When the Institut 

 fiir Expeiimentelle Therapie was established at Frankfurt, in 1899, he was 

 transferred to its directorship. His earlier work had been done almost single- 

 handed, but we now see him surrounded by a large body of able workers, and 

 equipped for his requirements in a manner which at that time had hardly 

 been equalled. He continued his researches on immunity and instituted on 

 a large scale experimental investigations on cancer. The latter were not of 

 his own choosing, but were taken up at the request of the Government. He 

 was, however, fortunate in being able to carry on contemporaneously that 



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