The History of Creative Schmoozing

Many of the great discoveries in psychopharmacology came about by serendipity, for instance, when doctors noticed that a new tuberculosis drug lifted patients’ mood, and wondered whether it might be helpful as an antidepressant. Or when a researcher working on a penicillin preservative recognized that the test animals became very quiescent, and thought it might be used as a tranquilizer. Most of these cases came about by one particular type of serendipity—when a single individual made a chance observation and realized that there was an implication that others had not seen. Here, we look at another type of serendipitous event: when a casual conversation leads two people to see something neither alone had understood. Let’s examine three examples from pharmacology and biology.

Chloroform as a Surgical Anesthetic
Chloroform was first synthesized in 1831; one of its discoverers had recognized the possibility that it might be useful as an anesthetic, but did not pursue it. Sixteen years later, James Young Simpson, a young Edinburgh obstetrician, was very much interested in finding an anesthetic suitable for childbirth. In 1846 he had learned about ether and had begun using it, but was discouraged by its drawbacks. Among other things, it was very explosive, was irritating to the respiratory system, and often led to vomiting. Then in October 1847, he had a chance conversation with David Waldie, a physician from Liverpool who was vacationing in Scotland. In the course of their talk, Waldie mentioned that in his work at the Liverpool Apothecaries Company, he often supplied chloroform as a treatment for asthma, and had been told by his doctors that it made patients sleepy. It turns out that he had tried it himself with the same result, and suggested Simpson look into it. Indeed, Simpson was quick to gather two of his younger colleagues in his apartment, produced a bottle of chloroform, and poured each a tumbler for sipping. To the consternation of his wife who was observing the proceedings, soon all three were unconscious. Before long, Simpson was using it for childbirth. Though chloroform met with some resistance for reasons that included religious concerns, it became a widely used anesthetic after the London physician John Snow used it during the birth of Queen Victoria’s eighth child in 1853.

The Role of the Pancreas in Glucose Regulation
Joseph von Mering (1849-1908) was a German physician at the University of Strasburg who had been interested in what was then called ‘acetonaemia’, later ‘acidosis’, in diabetic coma. While in the library one day in 1889, he met Oskar Minkowski (1858-1931), a physician in a different department, and they began talking about their common interest in the possible function of the pancreas in fat absorption. Minkowski, as it happened, was particularly skilled at surgery in animals, and as he and von Mering discussed pancreatic function, it came naturally to him to suggest surgically removing the pancreas and observing the result. He performed the surgery on a dog with von Mering’s assistance and found that it began producing large amounts of urine that he determined was rich in glucose. They concluded that the pancreas must secrete a substance important for glucose metabolism, which later was determined to be insulin by Frederick Banting and Charles Best in 1921.

Both von Mering and Minkowski, incidentally, went on to further remarkable careers. Von Mering became the co-discoverer of Veronal, the first sedative barbiturate, in 1903. Minkowski went on to become a distinguished professor of medicine in Breslau and was one of the physicians who were called to treat the ailing Vladimir Lenin in 1923. As an interesting footnote, after Minkowski died in 1831, his widow was forced to flee Germany in the face of rising anti-semitism and was aided in the process by Charles Best, the co-discover of insulin.

The Creation of Cell Theory

Cross-section through a cluster of maize leaves

Source: Fernan Federici in Wellcome Collection/Public Domain

As we described in more detail in an earlier post, Matthias Jakob Schleiden (1804-1881) was a German botanist who came to believe that all plants are comprised of cells containing a nucleus and that ultimately all plants can be seen to have developed from a single cell. One evening he had dinner with his friend and colleague Theodor Schwann (1810-1882), a young physician who was already known for having discovered the digestive enzyme pepsin, who was now doing a study of nerve endings in the tails of frog larvae. As Schleiden described his idea about cells in plants, Schwann suddenly recognized that this was similar to what he had been observing in animal tissue.

They proceeded to his lab, where they both agreed that this was the case. The following year, Schwann wrote a book that expanded Schleiden’s idea, using the term ‘cell theory’, which begins with the notion that cells are found in all living things, and comprise the basic unit of life. With the addition by the German pathologist Rudolf Virchow in 1855 that ‘all cells are derived from other cells’, the way was paved for what became known as the field of cell biology and ultimately influenced studies in a wide area including reproductive physiology, studies of evolution, and a new approach to understanding diseases.

In Summary

In these three cases, new ideas did not come from individuals working alone in a laboratory, or from the lecture hall, but rather from casual conversations. Typically, each of the participants understood only part of the story, and it was only when hearing someone with a different experience that a new realization blossomed. As settings for work and learning evolve, it seems important to preserve opportunities for casual talking.