273 - 1832: Ricerche chimiche nel “Cholera Morbus”

1832: Chemical investigations in “cholera morbus” At the very beginning of Asiatic cholera pandemia (1828- 1832) that reached Europe in 1831, the health authorities not only set up all the steps to forestall the diffusion of the disease but tried also to investigate its etiology. The simple observation of blood was unhelpful and Wittstock, a Berlin physician, was charged with the task to analyze the biological fluids of patients suffering from cholera and to make comparisons with the fluids of healthy people. The aim of this paper is to present the chemical examinations described in a paper published by Wittstock in the “Poggendorff ’s Annals” in 1832, that was the first application of chemical techniques to diagnosis. The paper will assess the employed methods, the obtained results and the encountered difficulties by this unknown but valiant pioneer of Clinical Chemistry.