Frédéric Alphonse Musculus, born on July 16, 1829, in

Soultz-sous-Forêts Soultz-sous-Forêts () is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is the site of the European Hot Dry Rocks energy research project. Notable people * George Abert, member of the Wisconsin State Assembl ...

and died on May 26, 1888, in Strasbourg, was a French chemist.

Career

Son of the pharmacist of Soultz-sous-Forêts, he himself became a pharmacist. Still young, he frequented the laboratory of

Boussingault Jean-Baptiste Joseph Dieudonné Boussingault (2 February 1801 – 11 May 1887) was a French chemist who made significant contributions to agricultural science, petroleum science and metallurgy. Biography Jean-Baptiste Boussingault – an agri ...

in Paris. He studied starch, became interested in the production of beer and invented an alcoholometer based on capillarity. He was chief pharmacist at the Strasbourg hospital and chaired the ''Society of sciences, agriculture and arts of Lower Alsace''. He did research in collaboration with members of the laboratory of

Felix Hoppe-Seyler Ernst Felix Immanuel Hoppe-Seyler (''né'' Felix Hoppe; 26 December 1825 – 10 August 1895) was a German physiologist and chemist, and the principal founder of the disciplines of biochemistry and molecular biology. Biography Hoppe-Seyler was b ...

. He showed in 1876 that the ammoniacal fermentation of urine is due to a "soluble ferment" (

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrate (chemistry), substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecule ...

) which can act in the absence of the living organism to which "one" then attributed the causal role.

Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named after ...

, who had identified the living organism in question ("organized ferment") and attributed to it the role of agent of fermentation, was convinced by the experience of Musculus, but insisted on the fact that the "soluble ferment" was a production of the "organized ferment". The discovery of Musculus (the fact that a fermentation is only indirectly caused by a living organism and that it is possible to obtain this fermentation in the absence of this living organism, with the help of non-living substances that it secreted) was, in the particular case of the ammoniacal fermentation of urine, the confirmation of a general conjecture that

Moritz Traube Moritz Traube (12 February 1826 in Ratibor, Province of Silesia, Prussia (now Racibórz, Poland) – 28 June 1894 in Berlin, German Empire) was a German chemist (physiological chemistry) and universal private scholar. Traube worked on chemical ...

in 1858 and Berthelot in 1860 had formulated about all fermentations and that

Buchner Buchner is a German surname. Notable people with this surname include the following: * Andreas Buchner (1776–1854), German historian * Annemarie Buchner (1924-2014), German Olympian * August Buchner (1591–1661), German influential Baroque poet ...

would demonstrate in 1897 in the case of alcoholic fermentation. The enzyme discovered by Musculus was later called "

urease Ureases (), functionally, belong to the superfamily of amidohydrolases and phosphotriesterases. Ureases are found in numerous bacteria, fungi, algae, plants, and some invertebrates, as well as in soils, as a soil enzyme. They are nickel-containi ...

". Frédéric Musculus is buried in the Saint-Gall cemetery in Strasbourg (Koenigshoffen).''Strasbourg-Koenigshoffen. Cimetière Saint-Gall'', City of Strasbourg, 2008, p. 82.

Publications

Without claiming to be exhaustive: * "Remarques sur la transformation de la matière amylacée en glucose et dextrine", ''Annales de chimie et de physique'', t. 60, 1860, pp. 203–207
online
* "Nouvelle note sur la transformation de l'amidon en dextrine et glucose", ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences'', t. 54, 1862, pp. 194–197
online
* "Des hydrates stanniques", ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences'', t. 65, 1867, pp. 961–963
online
* Note sur la transformation du glucose en une matière analogue à la dextrine, ''Bulletin de la Société chimique de Paris'', nouv. Sér., t. 18, 2e semestre 1872, p. 49 et 66–67
online
* "Sur un papier réactif de l'urée", ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences'', t. 78, , janvier 1874, pp. 132–134, consultable su
online
* "Sur l'amidon soluble", ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences'', t. 78, 1874, pp. 1413–1417
online
* "Sur le ferment de l'urée", ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences'', vol. 82, 1876, pp. 333–336
online
* F. Musculus et D. Gruber, "Sur l'amidon", ''Bulletin de la Société chimique de Paris'', nouv. sér., t. 30, 1878, pp. 54–70
online

Bibliography

* Pierre Bachoffner, "Frédéric Alphonse Musculus", in ''Nouveau dictionnaire de biographie alsacienne'', vol. 27, p. 2791. * Antoine Balland, ''Les pharmaciens militaires français'', L. Fournier, Paris, 1913, p. 350-351. * (German) A. Schneegans, ''Festgabe für den Deutschen Apotheker-Verein'', Strasbourg, 1897, p. 165. (Quoted by H. Schelenz, see below.) * Édouard Sitzmann, ''Dictionnaire de biographie des hommes célèbres d’Alsace'', t. II, Paris, 1909–1910, réimpr. Paris, 1973. (Quoted by J.-Cl. Streicher, see below.) * (German) Hermann Schelenz, « Geschichte der Pharmazie », Georg Olms Verlag, 2005, p. 694
partially online
* Jean-Claude Streicher : ''Les pionniers de l’or noir du Pechelbronn'', chap. VI of the part concerning J. - B. Boussingault

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musculus, Frederic Alphonse French chemists French pharmacists 1829 births 1888 deaths