"for his discovery of the antineuritic vitamin"
THE SON OF A SCHOOLMASTER, CHRISTTAAN ElJKMAN WAS BORN on August 11, 1858, in Nijberk, a small town on the Zuyder Zee. He began his studies at the University of Amsterdam in 1875 and was for some years assistant to the professor of physiology there. In 1883 he joined the colonial army in the Dutch East Indies but he was invalided home two years later and resumed his laboratory work, this time as a bacteriologist. In 1886 he returned to the Dutch East Indies as a member of the Pekelharing-Winkler Commission to study beri-beri This group vainly sought a bacterial cause for the disease. When his colleagues returned home, Eijkman remained in Batavia as director of a new laboratory for bacteriology and pathology, taking charge of the medical school for native doctors as well. It was during this period that he carried out the work on beri-beri that won him this prize. He later studied 'tropical anemia' denying it separate existence as a disease entity. He also challenged the assumption that metabolism varied greatly with climate. Among the more important investigations of his later years were his study of fermentation tests and the demonstration of the presence of the colon bacillus in water (Eijkman's test). Ill once again, Eijkman returned home in 1896 and became professor of hygiene at the University of Utrecht; he held this post until 1928. In 1930 he died.