Karl Binz

Karl Binz (1 July 1832 - 11 January 1913) was a German physician and pharmacologist born in Bernkastel. He is known for his investigations on the pharmacological properties and effects of quinine.^[1]

He studied at the Universities of Würzburg and Bonn, later working at the University of Berlin in the pathological institute of Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902) and at the clinic of Friedrich Theodor von Frerichs (1819-1885). In 1868 he became an associate professor at Bonn, and several years later founded its pharmacological institute (1873). In 1885/86 he was university rector. During the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) he served as a staff physician.

In 1867 he discovered that quinine was highly toxic to micro-organisms in impure water,^[2] and demonstrated that quinine hydrochlorate with neutral or slightly basic reaction was an effective poison for the protoplasms of decomposing plants and impeded many fermenting and putrid processes.^[3] In addition to his research of quinine, he performed extensive pharmacological tests on arsenic, halogens and associated compounds, sleep-inducing substances, et al. The eponymous "Binz' test" is a qualitative test for the presence of quinine in urine.^[4]

Selected writings

• Ueber die Wirkung antiseptischer Stoffe auf Infusorien von Pflanzenjauche, (Centralblatt der med. Wissenschaften, V/20), 1867 -
• Experimentelle Beobachtungen über das Wesen der Chininwirkung, 1868 - Experimental observations on the nature of quinine.
• Weitere Studien über Chinin. (Berliner kininische Wochenschrift, November 1871), 1871 - Further studies about quinine.
• Das Chinin nach den neueren pharmakologischen Arbeiten, 1876 - Quinine according to recent pharmacological work.
• Ueber den Traum (1878).
• La quinine prophylactique de la fièvre de la malaria (1890, by Binz and other scientists) - Quinine for treatment of the fever of malaria.^[5]
• Vorlesungen über Pharmakologie, 1891 - Lessons on pharmacology.
• Rezeptsünden und ihre Folgen (1899).^[6]

Binz was also the author of a number of works in the field of "history of medicine", such as:

• Doktor Johann Weyer, ein rheinischer Arzt, der erste Bekämpfer des Hexenwahns, (1885, second edition 1896) - Doctor Johann Weyer, a Rhenish physician, first fighter of the witch craze).
• Augustin Lercheimer (Professor H. Witekind in Heidelberg) und seine Schrift wider den Hexenwahn, 1888 - Augustin Lercheimer (Professor H. Witekind in Heidelberg) and his publications against the witch craze.
• Die Einschleppung der Syphilis in Europa, 1893 - The introduction of syphilis in Europe.^[7]
• Aether gegen den Schmerz, 1896 - Ether against the pain.

References

• Pagel: Biographical Encyclopedia (translated from German)