Ueber das Stoffwechselproduct des Pyridins

His, Wilhelm, Jr. (1863-1934). Ueber das Stoffwechselproduct des Pyridins (Arbeiten aus dem Laboratorium für experimentelle Pharmakologie zu Strassburg). 8pp. Leipzig: J. B. Hirschfeld, 1886. 235 x 157 mm. Original printed wrappers, creased vertically, a little darkened at edges. Very good. Presentation Copy, inscribed by His to Carl Ludwig (1816-95) on the front wrapper: "Herrn Prof. Ludwig als Zeigen der Dankbarkeit und Verehrung, vom Verf." Stamps of the Ludwig Collection and of Lewis Hill Weed (1886-1952).

First Edition, preceding the paper's publication in the Archiv für experimentelle Pathologie und Pharmakologie 22 (1887). While a medical student at the University of Strasbourg, His discovered the body's ability to methylate organic compounds when he isolated N-methyl-pyridinium hydroxide from the urine of dogs that had been dosed with pyridine acetate. The son of noted anatomist and embryologist Wilhelm His Sr. (1831-1904), the younger His went on make a notable contribution to cardiology with his discovery in 1893 of the "bundle of His," a specialized tissue in the heart that helps synchronize contraction of the cardiac muscles (see Garrison-Morton 836). He was one of the first to recognize that the heartbeat originates in the individual cells of heart muscle.

His presented this copy of his paper to Carl Ludwig, the first professor of physiology at the University of Leipzig and founder of the physiological institute that now bears his name. His was working in Ludwig's laboratory at the time he made his discovery of the bundle of His. This copy was later owned by neuroanatomist Lewis H. Weed, director of the Johns Hopkins Medical School from 1929-46; Weed discovered the origin of the cerebrospinal fluid and mapped its circulation (see Garrison-Morton 1439). Jeffrey, Machines in Our Hearts, ch. 1. "Conjugation: Acetylation, Methylation." Xenobiotic Metabolism. Bioanalytical Systems, Inc., 2000. Web. Accessed 24 Apr. 2014.