Louis Lewin was a Germanpharmacologist. In 1887 he received his first sample of the Peyote cactus from Dallas, Texas-based physician Joseph Raleigh Briggs, and later published the first methodical analysis of it, causing a variant to be named Anhalonium lewinii in his honor. Lewin was born in Tuchel, West Prussia. He received his education at the gymnasium and the University of Berlin. The two years following his graduation he spent at Munich, in the laboratories of von Voit and Pettenkofer. Returning to Berlin in 1878, he became an assistant at the pharmacological institute of the university, and in 1881 he was admitted to the medical faculty as Privatdozent. In 1897 he was finally appointed professor. Louis Lewin's book "Die Nebenwirkungen der Arzneimittel" deals with the borderline between the pharmacological and the toxicological action of drugs with the untoward or side-effects of all kinds of medicaments. It was the first book of its kind. Another of his important books was "Phantastica", which began an era of ethnobotany that continues to the present day. Lewin mentioned in his book "Gifte und Vergiftungen" the causal connection between dental amalgam fillings and illness. One of his famous patients were the well-known chemistry professor Alfred Stock, who suffered from mercury poisoning due to occupational exposure. Lewin informed him also about mercury exposure from dental amalgams. In 1926 in an article in Zeitschrift für Angewandte Chemie, Stock claimed that released mercury from amalgam fillings caused poisoning and demanded the consumption stopped. This triggered a sharp and intense debate in Germany. Lewin died in Berlin, where a street and the nearby underground train station were named in honour of Louis Lewin.
Drug classification
One of Lewin's most enduring tasks was to create a system of classification of psychoactive drugs and plants based on their pharmacologic action. His original categories were:
Inebriantia
Excitantia
Euphorica
Hypnotica
Phantastica
Works
Lewin was a prolific writer. Among his many essays may be mentioned:
"Über Morphium-Intoxication" -- On Morphium intoxication
"Experimentelle Untersuchungen über die Wirkungen des Aconitin auf das Herz" -- Experimental analysis on the effects of Aconitine on the heart
"Über die Verwertung des Alkohols in fieberhaften Krankheiten" -- On the application of alcohol with feverish maladies
"Über maximale Dosen der Arzneimittel" -- On maximum doses of medicaments
"Über allgemeine Hautvergiftung durch Petroleum" -- On the broad eczema caused by petroleum
"Die Untersuchungen von Blutflecken" -- Analysis of hemangioma
"Die Vergiftungen in Betrieben" -- Intoxications at business
Lewin is also the author of the following books:
"Die Nebenwirkungen der Arzneimittellehre" -- Adverse reactions of pharmacology
"Die Arzneimittel und ihre Dosierung : zum Gebrauche für Vorlesungen und die ärztliche Praxis". Grosser, Berlin 1884 by the University and State Library Düsseldorf
"Lehrbuch der Toxikologie : für Aerzte, Studirende und Apotheker ; mit 8 Holzschnitten u. 1 Taf.". Urban & Schwarzenberg, Wien 1885 by the University and State Library Düsseldorf
"Die Fruchtabtreibung durch Gifte und andere Mittel" -- Abortion by poisons and other remedies
"Die Pfeilgifte : historische und experimentelle Untersuchungen". Reimer, Berlin 1894 by the University and State Library Düsseldorf
"Lehrbuch der Toxikologie". Urban & Schwarzenberg, Wien 2., vollst. neubearb. Aufl. 1897 by the University and State Library Düsseldorf
"Die Gifte in der Weltgeschichte : toxikologische, allgemeinverständliche Untersuchungen der historischen Quellen". Springer, Berlin 1920 by the University and State Library Düsseldorf
