Fanny Hesse
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Fanny Hesse (born Angelina Fanny Eilshemius, June 22, 1850 – December 1, 1934) is best known for her work in
microbiology Microbiology () is the branches of science, scientific study of microorganisms, those being of unicellular organism, unicellular (single-celled), multicellular organism, multicellular (consisting of complex cells), or non-cellular life, acellula ...
alongside her husband,
Walther Hesse Walther Hesse (27 December 1846 – 19 July 1911) is best known for his work in microbiology, specifically his work with his wife Fanny Hesse in developing agar as a medium for culturing microorganisms. Biography Hesse was born in Bischofswerd ...
. Following her initial suggestion of using
agar Agar ( or ), or agar-agar, is a jelly-like substance consisting of polysaccharides obtained from the cell walls of some species of red algae, primarily from " ogonori" and " tengusa". As found in nature, agar is a mixture of two components, t ...
as an alternative to
gelatin Gelatin or gelatine () is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also be referred to as hydrolyzed collagen, coll ...
, they were instrumental in pioneering agar's usage as a common gelling agent for producing media capable of culturing microorganisms at high temperatures.


Biography


Early life and childhood

Hesse was born in 1850 in
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to Gottfried Eilshemius, a wealthy import merchant, and his wife, Cécile Elise (née Robert). Her family is of
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descent, originating near
Emden Emden () is an Independent city (Germany), independent town and seaport in Lower Saxony in the north-west of Germany and lies on the River Ems (river), Ems, close to the Germany–Netherlands border, Netherlands border. It is the main town in t ...
,
Frisia Frisia () is a Cross-border region, cross-border Cultural area, cultural region in Northwestern Europe. Stretching along the Wadden Sea, it encompasses the north of the Netherlands and parts of northwestern Germany. Wider definitions of "Frisia" ...
. Hesse was the oldest of ten children, five of whom died early on in their lives, and they were raised at Laurel Hill Manor in
North Arlington, New Jersey North Arlington is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 16,457, an increase of 1,065 (+6.9%) from the 2010 ...
. She and her sisters learned about cooking and housekeeping from their mother beginning at an early age. At the age of 15, she attended a
finishing school A finishing school focuses on teaching young women social graces and upper-class cultural rites as a preparation for entry into society. The name reflects the fact that it follows ordinary school and is intended to complete a young woman's ...
in
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to study
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and
home economics Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences (often shortened to FCS or FACS), is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and f ...
.


Later life and family

Hesse was first introduced to her husband and research partner, Walther Hesse, through an introduction by his brother Richard whilst he was visiting New York. Fanny Hesse then met Walther again in 1872 while traveling in
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
with her sister Eugenie. The couple engaged in 1873 and married in 1874 with a wedding held in
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. Shortly afterwards, the couple began to reside in the Erzgebirge mountain range due to Walther Hesse's work in nearby uranium mines as a doctor. She and her family would later live in Strehlen, a suburb of
Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
, as a result of Walther purchasing a house to work from home at during his time at the Technical University of Dresden. Referred to as Lina in her family, Hesse and her husband had 3 sons. Hesse and her brother Louis Eilshemius both shared an early interest and talent for
painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
and
illustrations An illustration is a decoration, interpretation, or visual explanation of a text, concept, or process, designed for integration in print and digitally published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vi ...
, with Louis earning some fame for his work later on in his life. Hesse would end up outliving her husband by 23 years, and her illustrations and Walther's papers have been passed down to her grandchildren as part of her personal collection. Following Walther's death, she moved into the town to be closer to her family and children for the remainder of her life. During
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, the Hesse family home in New Jersey was sold and her part of the
inheritance Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...
was kept as enemy property. It was not until many years later that she began to receive small sums of money and other items included with her inheritance, in addition to the
pension A pension (; ) is a fund into which amounts are paid regularly during an individual's working career, and from which periodic payments are made to support the person's retirement from work. A pension may be either a " defined benefit plan", wh ...
she received as a
widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died and has usually not remarried. The male form, "widower", is first attested in the 14th century, by the 19th century supplanting "widow" with reference to men. The adjecti ...
of a
civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
. However, as her home in
Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
was destroyed during Allied air raids, many of the Hesse family mementos have been lost aside from those that Hesse managed to collect from family members.


Research contributions


Laboratory assistance

In addition to her housekeeping duties, Hesse worked in an unpaid capacity to assist her husband by preparing bacterial growth media, cleaning equipment, and producing illustrations for scientific
publications To publish is to make Content (media), content available to the general public.Berne Conv ...
. Hesse became familiar with her husband's work over time. She also performed a role as a scientific
illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...
, drawing highly accurate
watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...
images of colonies of fungi and bacteria on solid growth media, and her illustrations were included in her husband's work that was published in 1884. Hesse helped to coat test tubes with gelatin for her husband to use in growing microorganisms before they discovered that gelatin easily melted on warm days, destroying some of the bacteria. In addition to these technical duties, she used her artistic abilities to draw pictures of bacterial colonies as viewed under a microscope in the different phases of bacteria growth to use in her husband's journal publications. At the time of her recommendation for agar as a plating medium, Hesse was also helping her husband culture air-borne bacteria.


Suggestion of agar

In 1881, while her husband was working in the laboratory of German physician and
microbiologist A microbiologist (from Greek ) is a scientist who studies microscopic life forms and processes. This includes study of the growth, interactions and characteristics of microscopic organisms such as bacteria, algae, fungi, and some types of par ...
Robert Koch Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( ; ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera and anthrax, he i ...
, he struggled with performing experiments on gelatin medium that liquified due to gelatin-liquefying organisms and temperature increases during incubation. According to one source, Hesse suggested to her husband, Walther, the use of agar in his experiments. Before the suggestion to use agar, Walter Hesse and Koch had attempted using potato slices as a medium to culture pure colonies. Once this proved to be unsubstantial, they attempted utilizing a nutrient-rich gelatin media, which still did not provide adequate stability for producing cultures for examination. Following unsuccessful attempts of culturing microorganisms on gelatin mediums, Hesse then suggested that
agar Agar ( or ), or agar-agar, is a jelly-like substance consisting of polysaccharides obtained from the cell walls of some species of red algae, primarily from " ogonori" and " tengusa". As found in nature, agar is a mixture of two components, t ...
was preferable to
gelatin Gelatin or gelatine () is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also be referred to as hydrolyzed collagen, coll ...
for cultivating bacteria and other
microorganisms A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic size, which may exist in its single-celled form or as a colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen microbial life was suspected from antiquity, with an early attestation in ...
. She was aware of the properties of agar as a gelling agent, able to maintain its physical properties at warm temperatures, through her usage of it at home. Hesse had first learned about agar from her mother's friends that had lived in the
East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies) is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The ''Indies'' broadly referred to various lands in Eastern world, the East or the Eastern Hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainl ...
, where the
seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of ''Rhodophyta'' (red), '' Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...
extract itself originates. Agar was first utilized in seaweed extracts in
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, and it was later introduced to Europe by Dutch citizens in the East Indies for the creation of fruit jellies. She initially had been utilizing agar as a replacement for gelatin in dishes she prepared in her kitchen, finding agar more versatile in resisting summer temperatures for fruit
jam Fruit preserves are preparations of fruits whose main preserving agent is sugar and sometimes acid, often stored in glass jars and used as a condiment or spread. There are many varieties of fruit preserves globally, distinguished by the meth ...
s and jellies, and subsequently suggested it as an alternative when Walther complained to her about gelatin breaking down in the summertime heat. Hesse's suggestion led to Walther and Koch successfully using agar as a plating medium for cultivating the bacteria that caused
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
. From p. 225: ''"Die Tuberkelbacillen lassen sich auch noch auf anderen Nährsubstraten kultiviren, wenn letztere ähnliche Eigenschaften wie das erstarrte Blutserum besitzen. So wachsen sie beispielsweise auf einer mit Agar-Agar bereiteten, bei Blutwärme hart bleibenden Gallerte, welche einen Zusatz von Fleischinfus und Pepton erhalten hat."'' (The tubercule bacilli can also be cultivated on other media, if the latter have properties similar to those of congealed blood serum. Thus they grow, for example, on a gelatinous mass that was prepared with agar-agar, which remains solid at blood temperature, and which has received a supplement of meat broth and peptone.) Hesse's suggestion of using agar also proved to be central to her husband's success in analyzing microbial counts in air, as he initially ran into problems with summertime temperatures liquefying the gelatin. Subsequent experiments following her suggestion of using agar as an alternative gelling agent revealed its advantages in
thermal stability In thermodynamics, thermal stability describes the stability of a water body and its resistance to mixing.Schmidt, W. 1928. Über Temperatur und Stabilitätsverhältnisse von Seen. Geogr. Ann 10: 145 - 177. It is the amount of work needed to tra ...
, resistance to liquifying bacterial
enzymes An enzyme () is a protein that acts as a biological catalyst by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as pro ...
, ability to maintain sterility, and benefits for long term storage, which rectified many of the problems associated with gelatin. In comparison to agar, which could remain solid at temperatures up to 90°C while settling at temperatures below 45°C, gelatin liquified at 37°C, which made it an unsuitable media to plate many types of bacteria in laboratory conditions. The agar "dessert medium" invented by Hesse, and that her husband Walther used to culture bacteria in his laboratory, had a percent composition of 1%-1.5%. The agar that Hesse popularized does not melt below 85°C and is often observed at 100°C. Agar-based mediums were capable of providing a firmer media at higher temperatures, which allowed for better
plating Plating is a finishing process in which a metal is deposited on a surface. Plating has been done for hundreds of years; it is also critical for modern technology. Plating is used to decorate objects, for corrosion inhibition, to improve solderab ...
and isolation of bacterial colonies in the conditions Walther and Koch performed their experiments in. Eventually, the agar media would be used by
Julius Richard Petri Julius Richard Petri (; 31 May 185220 December 1921) was a German microbiologist who is generally credited with inventing the device known as the Petri dish, which is named after him, while working as assistant to bacteriologist Robert Koch. L ...
in creating the
Petri dish A Petri dish (alternatively known as a Petri plate or cell-culture dish) is a shallow transparent lidded dish that biologists use to hold growth medium in which cells can be cultured,R. C. Dubey (2014): ''A Textbook Of Biotechnology For Class- ...
, a model of culture plates used in modern laboratory work. In his paper on the etiology of tuberculosis, Robert Koch wrote: “The tubercle bacilli can also be cultured on other nutrient substrates, if the latter possess similar properties to the solidified serum. They are able to grow on a solidified gel which remains solid at incubator temperature, prepared by adding agar-agar to a meat infusion or peptone medium.” Although Koch mentioned in an 1882 paper on
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
bacilli Bacilli is a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic Class (biology), class of bacteria that includes two orders, Bacillales and Lactobacillales, which contain several well-known pathogens such as ''Bacillus anthracis'' (the cause of anthrax). ''Bacilli'' ...
that he used agar, he did not credit either Hesse. At the time, Koch didn't recognize yet the importance of agar. Later on in her life, she chose to keep and take care of all of her illustrations and Walther's papers and documents, out of respect for Walther's work and her own contributions to his discoveries. The Hesses chose to not exploit their contributions with agar commercially, citing the action as improper conduct. Hesse's contribution never resulted in financial benefit for the Hesse family, but continues to remain central to the fields of
microbiology Microbiology () is the branches of science, scientific study of microorganisms, those being of unicellular organism, unicellular (single-celled), multicellular organism, multicellular (consisting of complex cells), or non-cellular life, acellula ...
and
bacteriology Bacteriology is the branch and specialty of biology that studies the Morphology (biology), morphology, ecology, genetics and biochemistry of bacteria as well as many other aspects related to them. This subdivision of microbiology involves the iden ...
in regards to
laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratories are found in a variety of settings such as schools ...
techniques for producing plating media.


See also

*
Walther Hesse Walther Hesse (27 December 1846 – 19 July 1911) is best known for his work in microbiology, specifically his work with his wife Fanny Hesse in developing agar as a medium for culturing microorganisms. Biography Hesse was born in Bischofswerd ...
*
Robert Koch Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( ; ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera and anthrax, he i ...


References


External links


AGAR and the Quest to Isolate Pure Cultures

The Forgotten Woman Who Made Microbiology Possible
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hesse, Fanny American expatriates in Germany American women scientists German microbiologists German women microbiologists 1850 births 1934 deaths