The Quest for Cortisone

Chapter 2. Introducing Dr. Kendall

17 Chapter 2 introducing Dr. Kendall They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains. It’s a very bad definition, but it does apply to detective work. —sherLoCK hoLMes, A STUDY IN SCARLET edward Kendall took a sample of his highly concentrated acid-insoluble thyroid extract and dissolved it in a small amount of ethanol.1 he placed the glass vessel holding the aromatic concoction into a steam bath and stared as the solution began to slowly boil away. it was mesmerizing. for most chemists, this procedure, commonly called “chemical extraction,” was as boring as a high school production of Inherit the Wind. But for young Dr. Kendall, working through the complex, multistep process for recovering the mysterious substance in this witch’s brew provided just about the most excitement any human could have without actually sniffing the hot solvents. it was late in the evening of December 23, 1914; the sleepy twenty-eightyear -old chemist had been working in the new fourth-floor biochemistry laboratory of the Mayo Clinic for almost twenty consecutive hours. he was mentally and physically exhausted. surrounded by blue-flamed Bunsen burners, drums of highly flammable liquids, and enough toxic chemicals to render half the city of rochester blind, hairless, and impotent, Kendall knew he needed to remain alert. But he could still not resist the sweet, seductive advances of Lady fatigue. he fell asleep on a stool, teetering precariously over the bubbling mixture as the air around his head was brutally violated by loud, staccato snores. When he awoke an hour later the alcohol had evaporated, leaving behind a white crust surrounded by a yellow, waxy residue. Both substances evoked his curiosity. Kendall added more ethanol to the beaker, and the yellow 18| Chapter 2 material promptly dissolved and disappeared. Probably just a contaminant, he reasoned. But the strange white crust persisted. Discarding the alcohol and the yellow substance suspended in it, he focused on the insoluble white salty substance lining the beaker. What is this stuff? Throughout the course of the day on December 24, he repeated the extraction procedure, manufacturing more of the white crust. By the following day—Christmas—he had accumulated enough of the powdery substance to study it. he measured the iodine content, a test of thyroid extract purity, and found it to be 60 percent—significantly higher than the 47 percent iodine compound he’d started with, and far more concentrated than any thyroid extract ever previously prepared. The possibility that he was staring at the world’s first sample of pure thyroid hormone crossed his mind. he dissolved some of the crust in more ethanol and poured in a few drops of acetic acid to lower the ph. The snow falling gently outside the laboratory wasn’t half as beautiful as the blizzard of delicate white thyroid hormone crystals that suddenly materialized in his flask as the acid was added. The mysterious substance produced by the thyroid gland had finally been isolated. edward Kendall, PhD, called the pure crystallized material “thyroxin.” When it was later shown to be an amino acid with an amine group, an “e” was added to the end to maintain consistency of scientific nomenclature. it was now “thyroxine.”2 Kendall had just pulled an allegorical plum out of his figurative Christmas pie, and in doing so achieved one of the great milestones in biochemistry. But amazingly, this wasn’t the discovery for which he would be remembered. edward “nick” Kendall was born on March 8, 1886, in south norwalk, Connecticut. his father was a dentist, and his mother, like virtually every other mother of the time, raised the kids—in her case, edward and his two older sisters, florence and ruth. Both parents were active in the Congregational church and somewhat “puritanical” in their religious beliefs, a quality that was strongly encouraged in the children. edward was brought up reading the Bible, singing hymns, and praying on his knees every night, and as he noted years later, “The horrors of Dante’s Divine Comedy and the bliss of heavenly existence were accepted by me as facts not to be questioned.” or at least they were accepted at first. The ever-skeptical edward wasn’t afraid to scientifically challenge the most taboo subjects, including the validity of his religious indoctrination. As a young child, he tested the hypothesis that “God will punish you for swearing,” a fate his parents assured him [18.119.107.96] Project MUSE (2024-04-26 07...