science · 12 December 1846 · 178 years ago
birth
Born 12 Dec 1846; died 3 Nov 1896 at age 49.
German chemist who discovered that the thyroid gland was rich in iodine, an element not known before that to occur naturally in animal tissue, making the thyroid gland unique in being the only tissue to contain iodine. This led to the discovery of the iodine-containing thyroid hormone and to its treatment in thyroid disorders. This, his most important discovery, he made in the last year of his life, 1896.
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