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Inventions and Discoveries

Paul Ehrlich and Microscopic Study of Blood Cells

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Biography of Paul Ehrlich

3. First scientific achievements

4. Paul Ehrlich’s contribution in the research of eosinophil

5. Paul Ehrlich’s researches of the molecular structure of blood cells

6. Conclusion

7. Bibliography

Biography of Paul Ehrlich

In fact, it is hardly possible to properly assess the contribution of a scientist without the general information about his life and work. Obviously, a brief overview of his biography is essential since it helps better understood what a person was Paul Ehrlich and what fields he worked in and, what is more, it will probably help to understand how he managed to make his discoveries.

First of all, it should be said that Paul Ehrlich was born on 14 March 1854, in Strehlen Silesia. At the early age he had already revealed his gift and inclinations to sciences and chemistry was his favorite one. Being a schoolboy and later a student, he was particularly interested in staining microscopic tissues substances. On completing his clinical education he habilitated in Charite Berlin but soon he received a call from Robert Koch to join the Institute for Infectious Diseases in Berlin in 1891.

Probably, this event to a significant extent defined his further researches because since that moment it had become obvious that he would totally focus his attention on medicine and chemistry and naturally will continue to work on his favorite problem of staining microscopic tissue substances which had interested him since his youth. However, he had got health problems and had to spend two years in Egypt recovering from tuberculosis. Thereafter he worked with his friend Emil Adolf von Bering on the development of diphtheria serum.

In fact, these studies inspired his famous side-chain theory which explained the effects of serum and enabled measurements of the amount of antigen. Not surprisingly that in 1896 Paul Ehrlich became the...