Researching Johann Scherer

He was elected to the Swiss Federal Council on July 12, 1872 and died in office on December 23, 1878. He was affiliated to the Free Democratic Party of Switzerland.

During his time in office he held the following departments:*Department of Finance (1872–1873)*Department of Railway and Trade (1873–1874)*Political Department (1875)*Military Department (1876–1878)He was President of the Confederation in 1875.

In 1836 he graduated from the University of Würzburg, where he studied medicine, chemistry, geology and mineralogy. From 1836 to 1838 he practiced medicine in Wipfeld, afterwards relocating to the University of Munich, where he resumed his studies in chemistry.

In 1840 he worked in the laboratory of Justus Liebig (1803-1873) at Giessen, returning to Würzburg in 1842 as a professor of organic chemistry. During his career at Würzburg, he held the title of professor in the departments of general, inorganic, and pharmacological chemistry, also attaining directorship of the Medical Institute for Chemistry and Hygiene.

Scherer was a pioneer of clinical chemistry, and is remembered for applying his knowledge of chemistry to problems in the field of medicine. He made contributions in the study of urine and blood in pathological conditions, and in 1843 and 1851 demonstrated the presence of lactic acid in human blood under conditions such as hemorrhagic and septic shock. He is also credited with the discoveries of inositol and the purine derivative known as hypoxanthine.

Beginning in 1852, with Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902) and Gottfried Eisenmann (1795-1867), he was co-editor of Karl Friedrich Canstatt’s annual reports, Jahresbericht über die Leistungen und Fortschritte der gesammten Medicin. One of his better known publications was the 1843 book Chemische und Mikroskopische Untersuchungen zur Pathologie angestellt an den Kliniken des Julius-Hospitales zu Würzburg (Chemical and microscopic investigations of pathology performed at the Julius Hospital Clinic at Würzburg).

He studied chemistry at the universities of Prague and Vienna, receiving his doctorate in 1782. As a student his instructors included botanists Joseph Gottfried Mikan and Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin. In 1797 he became a professor of chemistry at the Theresianum in Vienna, followed by a professorship at the Polytechnic Institute in Prague (from 1803). From 1807 to 1834 he was a professor of specialized natural history at the University of Vienna.

In 1811 he was elevated to the status of "Ritter" (title of nobility). From 1832 he was an editor of the Österreichischen medizinischen Jahrbücher.