Due Credit for Arthur Eichengrün

We often think of a great discovery or invention as coming from a sole Great Inventor, who came up with a brilliant invention out of nowhere. But the truth of the matter is that most inventions and discoveries are shaped by many hands before reaching their final form. But what about the invention we're concerned with right here, our old friend aspirin? Most people consider Felix Hoffmann to be The Inventor of aspirin. But now evidence is showing up that another scientist, Arthur Eichengrün, deserves a lot of the credit, too.

According to Walter Sneader, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Strathclyde University in Scotland, Eichengrün at times supervised Hoffmann's work at Bayer when Hoffmann synthesized acetylsalicylic acid. In an article that Eichengrün published in 1949, he claimed that it was actually his idea to acetylate salicylic acid.

But history remembers Hoffmann while forgetting Eichengrün. The suspected reason for this is that Eichengrün was Jewish. During the 1930s, say historians, when the Nazis controlled Germany, they didn't want to give any credit for one of Germany's great scientific accomplishments to a Jewish scientist. So Eichengrün's name was removed from the story, leaving all the credit to Hoffmann.

Eichengrün would lose more than just a claim to an invention under the Nazis. His chemical company Eichengrün Chemical Works was confiscated by the Nazi authorities, and Eichengrün himself was sent to a concentration camp, though he did manage to survive.

Today there is still a debate over who should be credited as The Inventor of aspirin. But no matter what actually happened leading up to Hoffmann's synthesis of acetylsalicylic acid on 10 August 1897, it turns out that the compound had already been invented decades before in 1853 by French chemist Charles Gerhardt. But his acetylsalicylic acid couldn't be used to treat pain, because it was not pure. German chemist Carl J. Kraut made a pure form some years after that. But even then he had not thought to use it to treat his headaches.

The invention of aspirin was the result of the hard work of many people, from the first herbalist to figure out that willow bark tea could relieve pain, to Gerhardt and Kraut who first made acetylsalicylic acid, to Eichengrün and Hoffmann who first considered it as a painkiller, to the doctors who actually tested it on real patients. The collaborative nature of invention is sometimes forgotten in our need for heroes to adore. While we should not deny the contribution Felix Hoffmann made to the world when he synthesized his aspirin, we should also be careful not to let our need for heroes cause us to deny credit to the other less obvious people who made aspirin into a reality.

More important, it is crucial that we never let our prejudices dictate who we will allow to be an inventor, and who we won't. This applies to the present and future as well as the past. Eichengrün was not only denied credit for his past contributions, but he was also barred by the Nazis from making any new contributions as well. One can only wonder how many wonderful inventions and discoveries the world has been denied because potentially great scientists were never allowed to enter a laboratory, just because of their religion, sex, or race. For our own good, we must do our best to make sure that no one is kept from making his or her contributions.

Next: Aspirin Intrigue