Salkovsky

SALKOVSKY Ernst Leopold (Ernst Salkowski, 1844-1923), outstanding German biochemist. In 1867 he graduated from the medical faculty of the University of Königsberg. In chemistry he was self-taught. After graduating from the university he worked in Vienna and Tübingen, as an assistant at the University of Königsberg, at the physiological institute of the University of Heidelberg, and at the Pathology Institute of the University of Berlin. In 1873 he was a privat-docent, and from 1874 until the end of his life a professor of biological and pathological chemistry at the University of Berlin; at the same time he headed the chemical laboratory of the Pathology Institute of the University of Berlin. Numerous works by S. cover various fields of physiological and pathological chemistry: he discovered the phenomenon of autolysis (see.) as a result of studying the products of protein putrefaction outside the organism and in the intestine, he discovered ⁵-aminovaleric acid and elucidated the chemical mechanism of the formation of hippuric acid and ethyl sulfuric acids in the organism. His works on purine metabolism are of very great importance, clarifying the origin of uric acid and allantoin in the animal organism, works on the formation of urea in the organism, clarifying the role of ammonia and the participation of the liver in this process. He isolated pseudonucleic acid, paranucleic acid, and aspartic acid from the products of tryptic hydrolysis of casein and fibrin. His proposal of chloroform as an antiseptic was significant in the development of enzymology. S. discovered a number of substances in normal and pathological urine, for example, hematoporphyrin when sulfonal was used, pentoses in morphinists, pheneturic acid, etc. S. developed many methods for the qualitative and quantitative determination of various substances in tissues and body fluids (quantitative determination of uric acid, ethyl sulfuric acids, qualitative reactions for cholesterol, creatinine, etc.). The majority of S.'s works were published in Ztschr. f. physiol. Chemie and Ztschr. f. klinische Medizin.