Download Christiaan Eijkman First bacteriologist at Utrecht University, Nobel

FEMS Immunology and Medical Microbiology 26 (1999) 185^187
Christiaan Eijkman
First bacteriologist at Utrecht University,
Nobel laureate for his work on vitamins
Jan Verhoef, Harm Snippe *, Hans S.L.M. Nottet
Eijkman-Winkler Institute for Microbiology, Infectious Diseases and In£ammation, Academic Hospital Utrecht, G04.614, Heidelberglaan 100,
3584 CX Utrecht, The Netherlands
Abstract
One century ago, Christiaan Eijkman was appointed Professor of Bacteriology and Hygiene at the University of Utrecht,
The Netherlands. Despite his appointment to teach bacteriology, Christiaan Eijkman made his main contribution to medical
science not in bacteriology but in nutrition. He discovered that beri-beri was not an infection but a nutritional deficiency (later
called vitamin deficiency) and received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1929 for these observations. These landmark studies
were made in the former Dutch East Indies. As professor of bacteriology he established an important school of medical
microbiology in The Netherlands. ß 1999 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier Science
B.V. All rights reserved.
Christiaan Eijkman was born on 11 August 1858,
in the rural village of Nijkerk, The Netherlands, as
the seventh of ten children. His father, a schoolmaster, was running a boarding school at the time. Early
on, Eijkman proved to be an exceptionally bright
youngster with a desire to study medicine. Since ¢nancial resources were limited, to obtain a medical
training he signed up for the colonial army; the Department of War then paid the bill. In this way,
Christiaan Eijkman joined the army in the Dutch
East Indies after ¢nishing his medical studies to obtain a Ph.D. degree in physiology. The title of his
Ph.D. thesis was: `Polarisation in the Nervous System'.
In 1883, Eijkman sailed to the Dutch East Indies,
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +31 (30) 2507628;
Fax: +31 (30) 2541770; E-mail: [email protected]
where a colonial war had broken out in the province
of Atjeh. Eijkman was soon struck by the number of
soldiers incapacitated by beri-beri, known in colonial
medical circles as polyneuritis endemica perniciosa.
He discovered that beri-beri was endemic and that
both native and European soldiers were a¥icted by
the disease. Very soon he came to the conclusion
that the disease must be of infectious origin and he
decided to make a thorough study of beri-beri in
order to discover its bacterial source.
After a two-year stay in the East Indies, Eijkman
obtained permission to return to The Netherlands
because of his wife's ill health. Soon after his return
to Holland Eijkman's wife died. Eijkman was obsessed by the problem of beri-beri and decided to
visit Robert Koch in Berlin to learn some basic bacteriological techniques. There, the party of three
Dutch scientists: Eijkman, Winkler and Pekelharing
was formed, to study beri-beri.
0928-8244 / 99 / $20.00 ß 1999 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
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In 1885, Eijkman returned to the Indies, ¢rst as an
assistant of Pekelharing and Winkler, who after one
year, however, both returned to Holland. Both were
convinced that beri-beri was an infectious disease
caused by exotoxin-producing bacteria that cause
nerve cell degeneration. During their research, they
had isolated micrococci from the blood of patients
and claimed that these microorganisms played a crucial role in the pathogenesis of the disease. They
appealed to the Governor-General of the East Indies
to maintain the laboratory facilities they had been
using and to transform the building into a Laboratory for Pathology and Bacteriology. Eijkman was
relieved from his military service and became the ¢rst
director until 1896. Interestingly, today this laboratory is a modernized edi¢ce and houses the `Indonesian Institute for Molecular Biology' under the directorship of Professor Sangkot Marzuki.
The cultures of micrococci left by Winkler and
Pekelharing were used by Eijkman in animal models.
The results, however, were not successful. Shortly
afterwards, one of Eijkman's French assistants
showed him chickens su¡ering from polyneuritis,
which was very similar to the symptoms seen in patients with beri-beri. Eijkman's assistant alerted him
to the change in feeding from 10 June through 22
November. During that period, the chickens were fed
cooked rice, leftovers from the army hospital. Sick
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J. Verhoef et al. / FEMS Immunology and Medical Microbiology 26 (1999) 185^187
chickens were seen from 10 July until November.
After November, the chickens were fed normal
chicken fodder and no sick animals were seen from
then on. The experiment with cooked rice and chicken fodder was repeated. Once more, it showed that
chickens fed cooked rice almost all died, while no
deaths were observed among normally fed poultry.
Eijkman could hardly believe his own conclusion
that an ordinary item like rice had been the cause
of beri-beri in chickens. He arrived at the hypothesis
that certain chemical components in rice were
changed biochemically by the normal intestinal £ora
and that these biochemical derivatives were neurotoxic. He was not able, however, to ¢nd toxins in
either the gastrointestinal tract or the nerve tissues.
After reading Eijkman's work on beri-beri and
discussing the results, the Inspector-General of Public Health in the Dutch East Indies, Mr. Vorderman,
interviewed all district health inspectors and found
that in 34 of the 63 prisons where white (polished)
rice was served, beri-beri was endemic; of 27 prisons
where red (unpeeled) rice was the main diet only one
prison occasionally had beri-beri cases. The Health
Inspector immediately decreed that red rice should
be served to all prison inmates. Almost overnight
beri-beri was eliminated from prison populations.
This Health Inspector, a superb organizer who translated Eijkman's work into a practical decree, saved
thousands of lives.
When Eijkman returned to Holland, he left behind
a polemic war between scientists who still believed in
the infectious nature of beri-beri and those who were
convinced of a dietary de¢ciency. Meanwhile, the
High Commissioner of the Dutch East Indies appointed Grijns and Boorsma to determine the component in rice that seemed to prevent beri-beri. Ultimately, Grijns delivered the ¢nal blow to the
infection/toxin theory. It was impossible to induce
the sickness in chickens injected with sera.
Not long after his return to The Netherlands, Eijkman was appointed Professor of Bacteriology and
187
Hygiene at the University of Utrecht. Eijkman, who
developed a broad spectrum of interests, established
the Department of Hygiene in Utrecht. He worked
on the physiology of bacteria and remained interested in wholesome diets and social medicine. Together with Beijerinck, Eijkman founded The Netherlands Society for Microbiology in 1911 and
became its second chairman. Later, he became a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences
in Washington. From 1912 to 1913, he was nominated rector of Utrecht University. In 1923, he was
awarded the John Scott Medal in Philadelphia; in
1924, he became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal
Sanitary Institute in London; and in 1929, he was
appointed corresponding member of the Wiener Gesellschaft fu«r Microbiologie (Vienna). In that same
year, he also received the Nobel Prize for his work
on beri-beri. The results of that work saved millions
of lives. Unfortunately, his health was then deteriorating and prevented him from travelling to Stockholm for the occasion and his lecture was therefore
read in his absence.
We honour Christiaan Eijkman by commemorating the 100th anniversary of his inauguration as Professor of Bacteriology and Hygiene and as the founder of the Department of Hygiene in Utrecht, The
Netherlands, now called the Eijkman-Winkler Institute. Eijkman's name and work are also remembered
in Indonesia, in particular by the Indonesian Institute for Molecular Biology which stands on the original site of Eijkman's former laboratory.
For a more detailed account and further references,
see:
[1] Verhoef, J. (1998) Christiaan Eijkman : Early Nobel winner
for beriberi research. ASM News 64, 688^692.
[2] Verhoef, J., Snippe, H. and Nottet, H.S.L.M. (1999) Christiaan Eijkman. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 75, 165^169.
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