Early life and education Christiaan Eijkman was born on 11 August 1858, at
Nijkerk, Netherlands, to Christiaan Eijkman, the headmaster of a local school, and Johanna Alida Pool. He was the youngest of seven children. His elder brother
Johann Frederik Eijkman (1851–1915) became a physical chemist. A year later, in 1859, the Eijkman family moved to
Zaandam, where his father was appointed head of a newly founded school for advanced elementary education. It was here that Christiaan and his brothers received their early education. In 1875, after taking his preliminary examinations, Eijkman became a student at the Military Medical School of the
University of Amsterdam, where he was trained as a medical officer for the Netherlands Indies Army, passing through all his examinations with honours. From 1879 to 1881, he was an assistant of Thomas Place, Professor of
Physiology, during which time he wrote his thesis
Over Polarisatie in de Zenuwen (On Polarization of the Nerves), which earned him his doctoral degree with distinction on 13 July 1883. Christiaan Eijkman was appointed its first director and with it departed from the army service. Now he was able to devote himself entirely to science. Thus Eijkman put an end to a number of speculations on the acclimatization of Europeans in the tropics which had hitherto necessitated the taking of various precautions. During the months that the chickens developed beriberi, the feed had been polished rice, and when the birds' diet was switched back to unpolished rice, the birds recovered in a few days. Eijkman surmised that
polished rice lacked a dietary component found in
unpolished rice, and that beriberi was caused by depriving the body of this component, which he called "the anti-beriberi factor". Subsequently, Eijkman was able to prove that the disease was not caused by blood contamination, respiratory metabolism, perspiration, or seasonal or temperature variation. He suspected the disease was caused by an unknown bacterium. Eijkman was unable to continue his research due to ill health, but a study by his friend
Adolphe Vorderman confirmed the link between polished rice and the disease. Eventually it was determined the missing compound that was causing beriberi was
vitamin B1,
thiamine. Chemist
Casimir Funk shortened the term "vital amine" to coin a new word,
vitamin. For his contributions to the discovery of antineuritic vitamins, Eijkman won the 1929
Nobel Prize for Medicine, sharing the prize with
Sir Frederick Hopkins. Funk, perhaps unfairly, was never given full credit for his work. In addition to his work on beriberi, he occupied himself with other problems such as arach
fermentation, and indeed still had time to write two textbooks for his students at the Java Medical School, one on physiology and the other on organic chemistry.
Later life and death In 1898 he became successor to G. van Overbeek de Meyer, as Professor in Hygiene and Forensic Medicine at Utrecht. His inaugural speech was entitled
Over Gezondheid en Ziekten in Tropische Gewesten (On health and diseases in tropical regions). At Utrecht, Eijkman turned to the study of
bacteriology, and carried out his well-known fermentation test, by means of which it can be readily established if water has been polluted by human and animal defecation containing
coli bacilli. Another research was into the rate of mortality of bacteria as a result of various external factors, whereby he was able to show that this process could not be represented by a logarithmic curve. This was followed by his investigation of the phenomenon that the rate of growth of bacteria on solid substratum often decreases, finally coming to a halt. Beyerinck's auxanographic method was applied on several occasions by Eijkman, as for example during the secretion of enzymes which break down casein or bring about
haemolysis, whereby he could demonstrate the hydrolysis of fats under the influence of lipases. Eijkman did not confine himself to the University. He also engaged himself in problems of water supply, housing, school hygiene, physical education. As a member of the Gezondheidsraad (Health Council) and the Gezondheidscommissie (Health Commission), he participated in the struggle against
alcoholism and
tuberculosis. He was the founder of the Vereeniging tot Bestrijding van de Tuberculose (Society for the struggle against tuberculosis ). He died in Utrecht, on 5 November 1930, after a protracted illness.
Awards and legacy In 1907, Eijkman was appointed Member of the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, after having been Correspondent since 1895. The Dutch Government conferred upon him several orders of knighthood, whereas on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his professorship a fund was established to enable the awarding of the Eijkman Medal. But the crown of all his work was the award of the Nobel Prize in 1929. Eijkman was holder of the John Scott Medal, Philadelphia, and foreign associate of the
National Academy of Sciences in Washington. He was also honorary fellow of the
Royal Sanitary Institute in London. To honor his dedication, the government of Indonesia named his research center on pathology and bacteriology the
Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology.
Personal life In 1883, before his departure to the Indies, Eijkman married Aaltje Wigeri van Edema, who died in 1886. In Batavia, Professor Eijkman married Bertha Julie Louise van der Kemp in 1888; a son, Pieter Hendrik, who became a physician, was born in 1890. ==See also==