Carl Ernst Heinrich Schmidt ( – ), also known in Russia as Karl Genrikhovich Schmidt (russian: Карл Ге́нрихович Шмидт, translit=Karl Génrichovič Šmidt), was a
Baltic German
Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...
chemist
A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...
from the
Governorate of Livonia, a part of the
Russian Empire.
Biography
Schmidt received his
PhD in 1844 from the
University of Gießen under
Justus von Liebig
Justus Freiherr von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 20 April 1873) was a German scientist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry, and is considered one of the principal founders of organic chemistry. As a professor at the ...
. In 1845, he first announced the presence in the test of some Ascidians of what he called "tunicine", a substance very similar to cellulose. Tunicine now is regarded as cellulose and correspondingly a remarkable substance to find in an animal.
In 1850, Schmidt had been named Professor of
Pharmacy at
Dorpat (Tartu) and in 1851 he was appointed Professor of Chemistry in the mathematical and physical division on the University of Dorpat. He was a corresponding member (1873) of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences (today
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across ...
). He was the president of the
Estonian Naturalists' Society
Estonian Naturalists' Society ( et, Eesti Looduseuurijate Selts, ELUS) is the oldest Estonia-based society of naturalists. It was founded in 1853, and since establishing has been the major scientific organisation focusing on natural history of E ...
in 1894. Schmidt is notable as the PhD advisor of the
Nobel Prize winner
Wilhelm Ostwald
Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald (; 4 April 1932) was a Baltic German chemist and philosopher. Ostwald is credited with being one of the founders of the field of physical chemistry, with Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Walther Nernst, and Svante Arrhen ...
.
Scientific work
Schmidt determined the typical
crystallization patterns of many important biochemicals such as
uric acid
Uric acid is a heterocyclic compound of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen with the formula C5H4N4O3. It forms ions and salts known as urates and acid urates, such as ammonium acid urate. Uric acid is a product of the metabolic breakdown o ...
,
oxalic acid and its salts,
lactic acid,
cholesterin
Cholesterol is any of a class of certain organic molecules called lipids. It is a sterol (or modified steroid), a type of lipid. Cholesterol is biosynthesized by all animal cells and is an essential structural component of animal cell membr ...
,
stearin, etc. He analysed muscle fibre and
chitin. He showed that
animal
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in ...
and
plant cell constituents are chemically similar and studied reactions of calcium
albuminates. He studied
alcoholic fermentation
Ethanol fermentation, also called alcoholic fermentation, is a biological process which converts sugars such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose into cellular energy, producing ethanol and carbon dioxide as by-products. Because yeasts perform this ...
and the chemistry of
metabolism and digestion. He discovered
hydrochloric acid in
gastric juice and its chemical interaction with
pepsin
Pepsin is an endopeptidase that breaks down proteins into smaller peptides. It is produced in the gastric chief cells of the stomach lining and is one of the main digestive enzymes in the digestive systems of humans and many other animals, ...
. He studied
bile
Bile (from Latin ''bilis''), or gall, is a dark-green-to-yellowish-brown fluid produced by the liver of most vertebrates that aids the digestion of lipids in the small intestine. In humans, bile is produced continuously by the liver (liver bile ...
and
pancreatic juices. Some of this work was done with
Friedrich Bidder. He studied chemical changes in blood associated with
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
,
dysentery
Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...
,
diabetes, and
arsenic poisoning
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but ...
.
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Carl
1822 births
1894 deaths
People from Jelgava
People from Courland Governorate
Baltic-German people
19th-century German chemists
Chemists from the Russian Empire
University of Giessen alumni
University of Tartu faculty
Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Burials at Raadi cemetery
Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities