Alfred Bertheim (17 April 1879 – 17 August 1914) was a German

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

, best known for his research on

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but ...

compounds with

Paul Ehrlich Paul Ehrlich (; 14 March 1854 – 20 August 1915) was a Nobel Prize-winning German physician and scientist who worked in the fields of hematology, immunology, and antimicrobial chemotherapy. Among his foremost achievements were finding a cure ...

. Bertheim was born in 1879 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and studied chemistry in Strasbourg and Berlin, where he gained his doctorate in 1901, with a thesis "Ueber die fluorescierende Verbindung aus Chlor-alpha-naphtochinonacetessigeste". He served as an assistant to Privy Councilor Liebermann and Professor Rosenheim in Berlin. In 1904 and 1905, he worked as a manufacturing chemist in

Bitterfeld Bitterfeld () is a town in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 July 2007 it has been part of the town of Bitterfeld-Wolfen. It is situated approximately 25 km south of Dessau, and 30 km northeast of Halle (S ...

before moving to the Georg-Speyer-Haus in 1906. There, together with

, he elucidated the chemical constitution of

atoxyl Arsanilic acid, also known as aminophenyl arsenic acid or aminophenyl arsonic acid, is an organoarsenic compound, an amino derivative of phenylarsonic acid whose amine group is in the 4-position. A crystalline powder introduced medically in the l ...

and synthesized innumerable arsenobenzene compounds. He was also responsible for the synthesis of

Salvarsan Arsphenamine, also known as Salvarsan or compound 606, is a drug that was introduced at the beginning of the 1910s as the first effective treatment for syphilis, relapsing fever, and African trypanosomiasis. This organoarsenic compound was the fi ...

and published "Ein Handbuch der organischen Arsenverbindungen" (A handbook of organic arsenic compounds).WorldCat item record
/ref> Bertheim enlisted as a war volunteer and died in an accident in Berlin on 17 August 1914.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bertheim, Alfred 1879 births 1914 deaths 20th-century German chemists Scientists from Berlin German military personnel killed in World War I Accidental deaths in Germany