[Medicine and chemistry around the middle of the 19th century in Erlangen. Eugen Franz Freiherr von Gorup-Besanez (1817--1878) (author's transl)].

Eugen Franz Freiherr von Gorup-Besanez, born 1817 in Graz, was appointed on 28. 11. 1846 to the post of lecturer in the faculty of medicine of the University of Erlangen. He had previously studied medicine in Vienna, Padua and Munich, followed by physiological and clinical-chemical studies under Louis Andreas Buchner in Munich, and further studies in organic and analytical chemistry under Friedrich Wöhler in Göttingen. In 1849 in Erlangen he became reader in organic and analytical chemistry, then, in 1855, moved to the faculty of philosophy as professor of chemistry. Von Gorup-Besanez was one of the early representatives of clinical chemistry in Germany. He tried to help clinicians by the analysis of urine, blood and tissues. In his lectures and through his books he was an outstanding teacher. His greatest contribution was the discovery of the amino acid valine. The lack of a laboratory in the medical faculty and his dissatisfaction with what could be achieved in clinical chemistry at that time may chiefly explain his move from the medical to the philosophical faculty. The life of von Gorup-Besanez illustrates the difficulties faced by clinical chemistry and its exponents in the middle of the 19th century.