Hans Krebs: Volume 2: Architect of Intermediary Metabolism, 1933-1937 (Hans Krebs)

498 Pages·1993·6.83 MB·English

by  Frederic Lawrence Holmes

HANS KREBS
MONOGRAPHS ON THE HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGY
Editors
RICHARD BURIAN, RICHARD BURKHARDT, JR.
RICHARD LEWONTIN, JOHN MAYNARD SMITH
THE CUVIER-GEOFFREY DEBATE
French Biology in the Decades Before Darwin
Toby A. Appel
CONTROLLING LIFE
Jacques Loeb and the Engineering Ideal in Biology
Philip J.Pauly
BEYOND THE GENE
Cytoplasmic Inheritance and the Struggle for Authority in Genetics
Jan Sapp
THE HERITAGE OF EXPERIMENTAL EMBRYOLOGY
Hans Spemann and the Organizer
Viktor Hamburger
THE EVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS OF COMPLEX SYSTEMS
A Study in Biosocial Complexity
C. Dyke
THK WELLBORN SCIENCE
Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil, and Russia
Edited by Mark B. Adams
DARWIN WITHOUT MALTHUS
The Struggle for Existence in Russian Evolutionary Thought
Daniel P. Todcs
MHTCHNIKOFF AND THE ORIGINS OF IMMUNOLOGY
From Metaphor to Theory
Alfred I. Tauber and Leon Chernyak
THEORY CHANGE IN SCIENCE
Strategies from Mendelian Genetics
Ltndley Dardcn
THE MOLECULAR VISION OF LIFE
Caltech, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rise of the New Biology
Lily E. Kay
HANS KRRBS
The Formation of a Scientific Life, 1900-1933
Frederic; L. Holmes
HANS KREBS:
Architect of Intermediary Metabolism, 1933-1937
Frederic L. Holmes
HANS KREBS
Architect of Intermediary Metabolism
1933-1937
Volume I!
FREDERIC LAWRENCE HOLMES
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1993
Oxford University Press
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Copyright © 1993 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
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without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
(Revised for vol. 2)
Holmes, Frederic Lawrence.
Hans Krebs.
(Monographs on the history and philosophy of biology)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Contents: v. 1. The formation of a scientific life, 1900-1933—
v. 2. Architect of intermediary metabolism, 1933-1937.
1. Krebs, Hans Adolf, Sir.
2. Biochemists—Germany—Biography. I. Title. II. Series.
QP511.8.K73H65 1991 574.19T092 [B] 91-2201
ISBN 0-19-507072-0 (v. 1)
ISBN 0-19-507657-5 (v. 2)
135798642
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For Catherine, Susan, and Rebecca
This page intentionally left blank
NOTES ON SOURCES
Documents designated "KC" (Krebs Collection), were, at the time I used them, in the
personal possession of Sir Hans Krebs. They were grouped by categories in boxes, but
were not formally organized. They have since then been catalogued and deposited in
the Sheffield University Library. I have not had opportunity to visit this archive in
order to identify the catalogue entries under which the individual documents can now
be found in that collection. Readers who wish to examine these materials should be
able to locate them with facility by means of the comprehensive Catalogue of the
Papers and Correspondence of Sir Hans Adolf Krebs FRS (1900-1981), compiled by
Jeannine Alton and Peter Harper. Inquiries concerning the catalogue and the collec-
tion should be addressed to The Librarian, Sheffield University, Sheffield S10 2TN,
UK. For documents that I consulted after the collection had been catalogued in
Oxford, 1 have included the entry numbers.
I have referred to the laboratory notebooks of Hans Krebs by numbers that he and I
affixed to their covers during the course of my visits to Oxford so that he could easily
retrieve those that I wished to examine further. These numbers do not coincide with
the numbering system adopted in the Catalogue and Correspondence. They can most
easily be identified with the Catalogue entries through the dates covered by each note-
book.
References to transcribed conversations are given according to the participants, in
the form "person interviewed-FLH," the date of the conversation, the number of the
tape, and the page number of the taped transcription. Because there are some irregu-
larities in the latter numbers some ambiguities result, and these references are given
only as an informal guide to those who may wish to consult the transcripts. Micro-
films of most, but not all, of the transcripts are on deposit in the Sheffield archive. The
complete set of transcripts is presently in my possession.
All translations from published and unpublished sources originally written in
German, including Hans Krebs's laboratory notebooks, are my own.
During the period covered by this work, the notations for organic compounds were
less standardized than they have since become. I have, in general reproduced the rep-
resentations of structural formulas originally used by the authors whose writings I
cite, rather than to modernize them.
In the footnotes the following abbreviations are used for titles of journals repeated-
ly cited:
VI11 NOTES ON SOURCES
Ann. Chem. Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie
Arch. exp. Path. Archiv fur experimentelle Pathologic und Pharm-
akologie
Arch. ges. Physiol. Pfliiger' s Archiv fur die gesammte Physiologie des
Menschen und der Thiere
Arch, mikros. Anat. Archiv fur mikroskopische Anatomie
Arch. Pharm. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Archiv fur Pharmakologie
und experimentelle Pathologic
Beitr. chem. Physiol. Beitrage zur chemischen Physiologie und Pathologic
Ber. chem. Ges. Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft
Biochem. J. Biochemical Journal
Biochem. Z. Biochemische Zeitschrift
C. r. Acad. Sci. Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des seances de
1'Academic des Sciences
C. r. Soc. Biol. Comptes rendus de la Societe de Biologie
Erg. Physiol. Ergebnisse der Physiologie
J. Biol. Chem. Journal of Biological Chemistry
Journ. de physiol. Journal de physiologic et de pathologic generale
J. Gen. Physiol. The Journal of General Physiology
J. Physiol. The Journal of Physiology
J. prakt. Chem. Journal fur praktische Chemie
Klin. Woch. Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift
Physiol. Rev. Physiological Reviews
Proc. Roy. Soc. Land. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London
Skand. Arch. Physiol. Skandinavisches Archiv fiir Physiologie
Z. Biol. Zeitschrift fiir Biologie
Z. exp. Med. Zeitschrift fiir die gesamte experimentelle Medizin
Z. physiol. Chem. Hoppe-Seyler's Zeitschrift fur physiologischen
Chemie
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Much of the content of the acknowledgments in volume I applies also to this volume.
Here, therefore, I add only my special thanks to those whose help was particularly
associated with volume II.
Among the friends and colleagues of Hans Krebs whom I interviewed, those whose
recollections have been incorporated into volume II include, Hermann Blaschko,
Vernon Booth, Lady Margaret Krebs, E. Wolfgang Krebs, David Nachmansohn,
Norman W. Pirie, Antoinette Pirie, Juda H. Quastel, Sir Edward and Lady Nan
Wayne, and Hans Weil-Malherbe.
Mrs. David Nachmansohn kindly gave me a group of letters written by Hans Krebs
to her late husband. Mr. W. J. Hitchins, director of the Hans Krebs archive in
Sheffield, was graciously hospitable during my visit there during the final preparation
of volume II.
It has been a special pleasure to work with two successive editors at Oxford Uni-
versity Press: William F. Curtis, who encouraged me to submit a very long manu-
script, and who astonished me by agreeing with enthusiasm to my tentative suggestion
that it might be better to publish it in two volumes; and Kirk Jensen, who has effec-
tively and graciously followed both volumes to completion. Careful management by
Susan Hannan, and meticulous copyediting by Randi Laisi have contributed greatly to
the effective production of volume II.
Robert Berger, owner of the Write Way, capably produced the camera-ready copy
for both volumes. He and I shared the frustrations of encountering many unanticipated
problems, and the satisfaction of resolving most of them.
Selda Lippa, who typed all of volume I and most of volume II, retired before the
latter was finished. Her successor, Joanna Gorman, completed the work with great
care and efficiency. In the last stages of preparation of the manuscript, when I was
preoccupied with other matters and could barely look back at what I already viewed
as finished, she and Pat Johnson took great care to ensure that all of the final details
were accurately completed.
In January 1992, my wife Harriet and I celebrated the appearance of volume I by
traveling to England to visit again Hans Krebs's wife Margaret, and his brother Wolf.
The joy of these reunions was tinged only by my regret that I could not share the
occasion with Hans Krebs himself. I have wondered often how he would have regard-
ed the outcome of a project to which he had contributed so much. I feel certain that he
would have questioned the length of the volumes: in part because he valued succinct-
ness in all forms of writing, in part because he would have doubted that the fine
details of his scientific and personal life would be of interest to others. But I like to
believe that he would otherwise have approved the way in which I have portrayed