In the winter of 1869, the young Swiss doctor, Friedrich Miescher, was attempting nothing less than to uncover the biochemical nature of life using leukocytes he isolated from the pus on surgical bandages. His laboratory was located in the kitchen of a medieval castle owned by the University of Tübingen in Germany.
The photograph shows a large distillation apparatus in the far corner of the room which produced distilled water and several smaller utensils, such as glass alembics and a glass distillation column on the side board. The adjacent laboratory of his mentor, the renowned biochemist, Felix Hoppe-Seyler, was more amply equipped.
As part of his protocol, Miescher rinsed the pus-soaked bandages with a dilute solution of sodium sulphate to wash out the white blood cells, then washed the samples with warm alcohol and ether to extract the lipids and other lipophilic molecules. He also digested the cells with solutions ...
