DAM, H. [HENRIK].

Nogle Undersøgelser over Sterinernes biologiske Betydning. [i.e. "Some investigations on the biological significance of the sterines"].

Kjøbenhavn, Arnold Busck, 1933. Royal8vo. In the original printed wrappers. A few nicks to extremities and previous owner's name to half title. Otherwise a very fine and clean copy. 162 pp.

First printing of the influential Danish biochemist and physiologist Henrik Dam's thesis on the biological significance of the sterines. Dam was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1943 for his work in discovering vitamin K and its role in human physiology, the present work being a seminal step towards this.

"During the years 1932 and 1933 Dam worked at the laboratory of Rudolf Schoenheimer in Freiburg, Germany, thanks to a Rockefeller fellowship he obtained to further his studies of the metabolism of sterols. In 1933 he received the D.Sc. in biochemistry at the University of Copenhagen with a thesis entitled Nogle undersøgelser over sterinernes biologiske betydning (Some Investigations on the Biological Significance of the Sterols). The next year Dam worked with Paul Karrer in Zurich. He continued to hold his post as associate professor until his appointment as professor of biochemistry at the Polytechnic Institute in Copenhagen. This appointment, however, was in absentia, because since 1940 Dam was on a lecture tour to the United States and Canada under the auspices of the American-Scandinavian Foundation. The tour was planned before the occupation of Denmark by German troops in April 1940." (DSB).

Order-nr.: 48091