This month, we are celebrating the 125th anniversary of the birth of M. S.

Tswett, the inventor

of chromatography. On this occasion we decided to publish the correspondence o f Tswett with
Dr. John Briquet, his f ormer thesis advisor at the University of Geneva and director o f the Ge-
neva Botanical Gardens. Until now this correspondence was unavailable to those who were in-
terested in the life and activities of Tswett, although it contains important information about his
first years in Russia, his frustrations in feeling to be a foreigner in his ancestors' homel and and
finally, about the start of his settlement in the Russian scientific establishment. This correspon-
dence is complementary to that Tswett had with his f ri end Clapardde which had been pub-
lished ten years ago.
M. S. Tswett's Correspondence with John Briquet
I. Revi ew of Tswett's Ph. D. Thesis by Briquet, and Tswett's
Letters from Si mferopol
I. M. Hais11 - / M. Ni ang 2 / L. S. Et t r e 3.
1Faculty of Pharmacy, Charles University, Hr adec Kx~lov6, Czech Republ i c
2Depart ment of Medical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Hr adec Kr~ilov6, Czech Republ i c
3Depart ment of Chemical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8286, USA
Mailing address: P.O. Box 6274, Beardsl ey Station, Bridgeport, CT 06606-6274, USA
Introduction
In underst andi ng somebody' s life, feelings and activities,
the letters wri t t en by the person always represent an im-
port ant source. This is particularly t rue when dealing
with peopl e who were living in a time before telephone,
fax or e-mail, when correspondence represent ed the
main means of communication. Let t ers were valued
much mor e than today: t hey were collected and kept for
decades, to r emember the writer, an est eemed acquain-
tance or a highly val ued friend. At that time, letters were
not simply hastily written notes: t hey were composed
very carefully, taking great care about style and format.
The readers of t he chromat ography journals are ac-
quai nt ed with the life and activities of Mikhail S.
Tswett, I the inventor of chromatography. It had been
well document ed and discussed in a number of articles
and books [1-13] and therefore, we only give a bri ef
summary her e as a background to the subsequent dis-
cussions.
Bor n on May 14, 1872, in Asti, Italy, Tswett spent the
first 24 years of his life in Switzerland, where his father,
Semen Ni kol aevi ch Tswet t (1828-1900), left him after
t he deat h of his mot her, soon after his birth. Michel was
~rDeceased on Oct ober 25, 1996.
studying first in Lausanne and t hen in Geneva, and at-
t ended the University of Geneva, majoring in botany,
where in 1896 he obt ai ned a Docteur ds Sciences degree,
with a thesis on cell physiology [14].
In the first ten years of Michel' s life his father was still
living in Russia but visited frequent l y his son in Switzer-
land. However, in 1882, Semen Tswet t and his family
moved permanent l y to Geneva. Finally, in 1895, his fa-
ther ret urned to Russia and Michel j oi ned him t oward
the middle of 1896. He had probl ems to obt ai n a perma-
nent academic position because foreign degrees were
not accepted in Russi a (and although this seems to be
unbelievable, evidently, he was not aware of this prob-
lem when moving there). Aft er some mont hs of uncer-
tainty, he found a low-level t emporary position in St. Pe-
tersburg, where he t hen prepared a Russi an magister' s
thesis, submi t t ed it to the University of Kazan' and de-
fended it on Sept ember 23,1901 [15]. Soon after that, M.
Tswett moved to the Uni versi t y of Warsaw, in Russian-
occupied Poland, apparent l y on the invitation of Profes-
sor D. I. Ivanovskii, 2 who just became the head of the
bot any chair there and whom he had met and be-
fri ended in St. Petersburg. Tswet t spent t he next 14
years in Warsaw, first at the University, then, in 1907, at
the Veterinary Institute and finally, from 1908 on, at the
Polytechnic Institute. It was at Warsaw that he devel-
Historical Paper
0009-5893/97/05 545-14 $ 03.00/0
Chromatographia Vol. 44, No. 9/10, May 1997
9 1997 Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
545
Figure 1
John Briquet, director of the Botanical Gardens in Geneva. Statue
at the Botanical Gardens.
oped the method of adsorption chromatography, carried
out his investigations on plant pigments, particularly
chlorophylls [16, 17], and published in 1910 his funda-
mental book on Chlorophylls in the Plant and Animal
World, representing his thesis for a Russian Doctor of
Science degree [18]. For this book, in 1911, he received
the M. N. Akhmatov Prize of the Imperial Russian
Academy of Sciences?
In the summer of 1915 Tswett left Warsaw before its oc-
cupation by German troops, leaving all his belongings
and books behind. In 1916 he resumed his duties at the
evacuated Polytechnic Institute of Warsaw, located now
in Nizhnii Novgorod, and finally, in the spring of 1917, he
was appointed professor of botany and director of the
Botanical Gardens at the University of Yure'ev (today:
Tartu, in Estonia). After the German occupation of Yu-
re' ev he left the town with the Russian professors who
then became the founders of a new state university in
Voronezh. Tswett died there on June 26, 1919.
After moving to Russia 4 Tswett maintained an appar-
ently regular correspondence with two of his Swiss
friends, Edouard Clapardde, and John Briquet. His let-
ters are preserved in Geneva: the letters to Clapar~de at
the D~partement des Manuscrits, Bibliothdque Publique
et Universitaire, and the letters to Briquet at the D~par-
tement des Manuscrits, Bibliothdque du Conservatoire
Botanique. These letters represent a valuable informa-
tion about Tswett and his life.
Among the two persons with whom Tswett corre-
sponded, Eduard ClaparOde 5 (1873-1940) majored in
medicine at Geneva University and became his closest
friend: together they attended a number of classes and
were active in the Swiss students' Soci~tO de Zofingue.
After graduation in 1897, Clapar~de joined the Univer-
sity as an assistant, advancing to the head of the Labora-
tory of Psychology, associate professor, and finally pro-
fessor of psychology.
The second friend of Tswett was John Briquet (Figure
1). He was born on March 13,1870, in Geneva and stud-
ied at the local university, obtaining a B.S. degree in
1889. He then continued his studies at the University of
Berlin, Germany, finishing it in 1891 with a docteur dt
sciences degree at Geneva University. Between 1892
and 1905 Briquet was associated with Professor Marc
Thury 6 at the Laboratoire de Botanique G~ndrale of the
university as a Private Dozent; in this capacity he super-
vised Tswett's work on his thesis. In 1890 Briquet be-
came sous-conservateur (deputy director) and in 1896
conservateur (director) of a relatively small botanical
garden (the Herbier Delessert) which he greatly ex-
panded into Jardin Botanique, the botanical gardens of
the city of Geneva. From 1905 on he devoted his full
time as the director of this institution. In the first dec-
ades of the 20th century, Briquet was one of the most in-
fluential botanists in Switzerland. He died on October
26, 1931 [21].
Although there was only about one year in age between
Tswett and his friends, it is interesting to note the differ-
ence in the tone of his letters to them. With Clapar~de
he was on terms of "tu", and called him "my dear friend"
(bien cher ami) or "my old chap" (bien cher vieux), end-
ing his letters very informally (see [19]). At the same
time he wrote very formally to Briquet: the letters al-
ways start with Cher Monsieur, and have the long, for-
mal French ending of Recevez, Monsieur, rues plus em-
press~es et cordiales salutations ("accept, sir, my most
thoughtful and cordial greetings"), or something simi-
lar.
Table I lists the letters on file in the Geneva collection]
As seen they are complementary. The letters to Briquet
were written by Tswett in the early period when he did
not yet have any permanent position, and thus, they are
extremely interesting in describing the mood and frus-
trations of the young scientist. On the other hand, al-
most all the letters to Clapar~de are from the Warsaw
period, when Tswett already had settled down. It looks
as Tswett's connections with Briquet were interrupted
by the end of 1898 although, naturally, it is quite possible
that not all of his letters were preserved by Briquet.
In addition to Tswett's letters to Clapar~de and Briquet,
the collection in the library of the Geneva Botanical
Gardens also contains two additional items: the draft of
Briquet's review of Tswett's doctorate thesis and copy
of Briquet's note (written on January 22, 1896), rebuk-
ing some criticism about Tswett's thesis.
546 Chromatographia Vol.44,No.9/10, May 1997 Historical Paper
Table I. Tswett's letters to Clapar~de and Briquet a
to Clapar~de b
from date
to Briquet
from date
St. Petersburg 17.VIII. 1897
Warsaw 30.III.1909
Warsaw 23.VI.1909
Warsaw 16.V.1911
Pfirg (Austria) 27.VI.1914 (card)
Aigen (Austria) 24. VI 1. 1914 (card)
Warsaw 24.XII.1914
Warsaw 18.III.1915 (card)
Niznii Novgorod 14.1.1917
Simferopol 6.VII+1896
Simferopol 18. VI I . 1896
Simferopol 29.IX.1896 (card) ~
Simferopol 9.X.1896 (card) ~
Simferopol 15.X.1896
Simferopol 13.XI.1896
St.Petersburg 30.XII.1896
St.Petersburg 22.11.1897 (card)
St.Petersburg 10.111.1897 (card) c
St.Petersburg 30. II1. 1897
St.Petersburg 19. VI. 1897
St.Petersburg 1. VI I . 1897
Simferopol 17.IX.1897 a
St.Petersburg 20. IX. 1897
St.Petersburg 3.X.1897
St .Petersburg 10.X. 1897
St.Petersburg 27.VIII.1898
St.Petersburg 30. I X. 189g
St.Petersburg 29. X. 1898 (card) ~
Moscow 28.XII.1915 ~
Vladikavkaz 8.VII.1917
aIn the table, the month is indicated by Roman numerals. In the letters written from Russia, the date corresponds to the
old Julian calendar still used there at that time, while the two postcards from Austria have the date in the Gregorian ca-
lendar used in the rest of the World.
bPublished by Hais [19, 20].
~The date as given by Tswett is obviously wrong.
aWritten by Semen N. Tswett, Mikhail's father.
elncluding his curriculum vitae.
One ma y ask t he quest i on, what ha ppe ne d wi t h t he let-
t ers wr i t t en by Cl apar bde and Br i quet to Tswet t . Most
likely, t hese wer e pr es er ved by hi m f or a l ong time. Ac-
cor di ng t o Tswet t ' s ni ece, t he l at e El i zavet a Lyash-
chenko (1913-1979) - t he daught er of Tswet t ' s half-
sister, Nadezhda - " Unc l e Mi sha" had a bi g bag full of
his mos t cher i s hed items, cont ai ni ng some letters, manu-
scripts, phot ogr aphs and ot her mat er i al , whi ch he car-
r i ed wi t h hi m f r om one pl ace t o t he ot her , even af t er his
f or cef ul evacuat i on of Warsaw. Af t e r his deat h, his
wi dow l eft this bag wi t h his si st er Nadezhda, and it was
kept first by her ( who di ed in 1936) and t hen by her
daught er El i zavet a unt i l her evacuat i on f r om Moscow
dur i ng Wor l d War II. She was unabl e t o save t he whol e
bag and t ook f r om it onl y s ome phot ogr aphs t hat l at er
wer e i ncl uded in t he bi ogr aphi es wr i t t en by Sakodynski i
[3-7] and Se nc he nkova [8]. Our phot os ar e also f r om
this col l ect i on.
The exi st ence of t he t wo col l ect i ons was known f or some
time. Dh6r68 in his 1943 art i cl e [1] al r eady quot e d f r om a
few l et t ers, and br i ef quot at i ons can also be f ound in t he
small bookl et of Hes s e and Wel l [22]. I n t he sevent i es
Sakodynski i also publ i shed excer pt s f r om a l i mi t ed
numbe r of l et t er s [4, 7].
The suggest i on t hat Tswet t ' s ful l c or r e s ponde nc e shoul d
be publ i shed in a schol arl y edi t i on or i gi nat ed f r om Hai s
[23]. In t he 1970s t he t wo Ge n e v a l i brari es wer e ki nd
enough t o pr ovi de copi es of t he ori gi nal l et t er s and gave
per mi ssi on f or t hei r publ i cat i on: f or this we woul d l i ke
t o expr ess our gr at i t ude t o t he l i brari es and par t i cul ar l y
t o Drs. Ph. Monni er and H. M. Burdet. Finally, in 1988,
Hai s publ i shed Tswet t ' s l et t er s t o Cl apar ~de [19, 20] in
bot h t he ori gi nal Fr ench and in Engl i sh t r ansl at i on, wi t h
critical comment s expl ai ni ng t hei r ba c kgr ound and t he
meani ng of some of t he r emar ks in t hem. Howe ve r , f or
vari ous r easons a si mi l ar publ i cat i on of t he Br i quet cor-
r es pondence never mat er i al i zed.
It was fi nal l y deci ded in t he s umme r of 1994 t o fill t he
existing gap and publ i sh Tswet t ' s full c or r e s ponde nc e
wi t h Br i quet and Br i quet ' s t wo not es about Tswet t ' s
Historical Paper Chromatographia Vol.44, No. 9/10, May 1997 547
Figure 2
Marc Thury, professor of botany and head of the Laboratory of Ge-
neral Botany at Geneva University.
thesis, now based on new transcripts and new transla-
tions. This became particularly important after investi-
gating the existing texts and comparing them to the
original letters: it was evident that there are a number of
inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the translations pub-
lished as excerpts. The aim of this project was to publish
this new collection in the spring of 1997, on the occasion
of the 125th anniversary of the birth of M. S. Tswett.
Here I (LSE) would like to give a personal account on
the fulfillment of this project.
Professor I. M. Hais (IMH) - who ten years ago already
prepared the publication of the Clapar~de letters [19,
20] - agreed to serve as the coordinator and as the senior
author, responsible for the translation. The transcripts
were prepared by his colleague, Professor M. Niang: it
was a real deciphering job because of the difficulty to
read Tswett's handwriting, requiring somebody with in-
timate knowledge in the French language. The letters
were translated by IMH and Professor A. E Fell (De-
partment of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of
Bradford, United Kingdom) helped in brushing up the
English text.
In the case when letters from a bygone area are pub-
lished, mentioning persons and events which are not fa-
miliar anymore to the readers, the addition of explana-
tory notes is of crucial importance. We already started to
collect this information while translation was still in
progress. Particularly Professor K. L Sakodynskii (Asso-
ciation of Chromatographers, Moscow, Russia) was of
great help in providing some background material, bio-
graphical sketches and the photos used here for Figures
1-4. Unfortunately, his sudden death on May 10, 1996,
prevented him from further cooperation in our work.
The translation of the letters into English was finished
by IMH at the beginning of October 1996, and he sent it
together with the French transcripts to me (LSE) on a
diskette, which I received almost on the same day as the
news about his unexpected sudden death, on October
25, 1996, reached me. However, the explanatory texts
and notes were missing: IMH planned to write them af-
ter the translation was finalized. Thus now, the final edit-
ing as well as the task of writing the introduction and
compiling the notes were left to me. Fortunately, our ex-
tensive correspondence during the translation period,
Professor Sakodynskii's notes, the existing literature, as
well as my knowledge of the life and activities of Tswett
provided me with the information needed to finish the
project. I also would like to express my gratitude to Pri-
vate Dozent Dr. Veronika Meyer (University of Bern,
Switzerland) for helping to clean up some loose ends.
There is one potential shortcoming in the present notes.
IMH planned to also consult some botanists to be sure
that the botanical names were correctly transcribed, and
to explain some of the botanical remarks in Tswett's let-
ters which are not familiar to us. I could not follow these
plans: thus, botanical remarks are not elaborated fur-
ther, and the (Latin) names of plants are given as deci-
phered from Tswett's letters. I apologize for any error
which may be due to possible incorrect reading of
Tswett's difficult handwriting. How difficult it was for us
to read Tswett's letters can be judged from the few ex-
amples to be included in our series. The difficulty was
even aggravated by the poor quality of the copies.
Originally we planned to also include the full French
texts of the letters besides their translation, but we fi-
nally decided to abandon this plan because of the exten-
sive volume of the material. However, whenever its con-
tent is particularly important, we always give the origi-
nal French text either in the introductory remarks or in
the notes.
We believe that the availability of Tswett's complete
correspondence with his Swiss friends can help in our
better understanding of the life and activities of this re-
markable scientist who has changed the way we investi-
gate complex natural substances. We also believe that
this posthumus publication will serve as a lasting memo-
rial to Professor Ivo M. Hais who initiated this project
25 years ago and whose personal involvement and labor
made its fulfillment possible.
General Remarks
Some general remarks are necessary to explain the con-
siderations we followed when preparing the publication
of these letters.
In translating the French text, we tried to follow it as
close as possible. We deviated from the original only in
548 Chromatographia Vol. 44, No. 9/10, May 1997 Historical Paper
Figure 3
The Laboratory of General Botany at the University of Geneva, in 1896. Left to right: R. P. G. Hochreutiner/6
doctoral candidate; John Briquet, assistant; Professor Marc Thury, and Michel Tswett, doctoral candidate.
two places: we always spell out the month (Tswett indi-
cated them by Roman numerals), and simplify the for-
mal end sentence to "sincerely yours." On the top of all
letters, d John Briquet is written by a different hand
(most likely, the librarian) and we omitted this. On most
letters there is also a note of R or Rdp (for Rdpondu,
"answered": indicating that he answered the letter),
written by Briquet, and we also omitted this in the trans-
lations.
Any publication indicating names of Russian persons or
towns has a problem of the proper transliteration of
these names from Cyrillic to Latin characters. Tswett
generally spelled the names in the French way (e.g.,
"Borodine", "Moscou") but he was not consistent.
Therefore, in our text, we consistently follow the con-
vention of Chemical Abstracts (CA) concerning translit-
eration from Cyrillic. We deviated from these rules only
in the case of towns which have well-established names
in English: examples are Moscow (instead of "Mo-
skva"), St. Petersburg (instead of "Sankt-Peterburg" and
Odessa (instead of "Odesa"). We also deviated from the
CA transliteration rules in the case of the name of
Tswett.
Correctly, it should be Tsvet; however, he preferred to
write it in the German way, with "w" and double "t" and
we follow his usage here (although it should be noted
that sometimes, he wrote "v" instead of "w").
With regard to major towns in Western Europe, we write
their names in the well-established English way ("Ge-
neva", "Florence", etc.) and not according to the lan-
guage of the particular country (Gen~ve, Firenze, etc.).
Since the readers of this journal are generally not ac-
quainted with the scientists who are mentioned in
Tswett's letters, we did our best to give each time a very
brief biographical sketch. For Russians, we always give
their first name and patronym ("middle name").
There is one more interesting observation we can make
when investigating Tswett's letters: he often gives his
address in Simferopol and St. Petersburg in Cyrillic let-
ters, and even his father, in his letter of September 17,
1897, (see Part II) gives his address written in Cyrillic.
Could it be that Briquet could read and/or write in Cy-
rillic?
A special comment is necessary with regard to the dates.
In Russia the old Julian calendar was still in use until
January 31, 1918, while the rest of Europe already had
changed to the Gregorian calendar in the 16th-18th
centuries. To convert from the Julian ("old style": OS) to
the Gregorian ("new style": NS) 12 days are to be added
in the 19th century and 13 days in the 20th century. (This
is the reason that the Great October Revolution which
actually took place on October 24, 1917, OS, has been
celebrated on November 7.)
We have a total of five postcards sent by Tswett from
Russia to Briquet, which have the Russian post office
cancellations as well as the arrival cancellation of Ge-
neva post office. These enable us to check Tswett's
dates. It seems as his letters from St. Petersburg were
definitely dat ed according to the Julian calendar, but
sometimes, he made an error in the date. However, in
the first months of his stay in Simferopol, he was some-
what mixed up with the date. We have two postcards
written by him to Briquet in September/October 1896
from Simferopol. The first (Figure 5) was dated by
Tswett as September 29 (29. IX.), while the actual post
office cancellation has the date of September 16, and the
Historical Paper Chromatographia Vol.44,No. 9/10, May 1997 549
Fi gure 4
M. Tswett in Geneva, in 1896.
( ~ BCNIIIIPItI~Ii~I HOqTOBIaI~I COIO37a. POOCI}L ~, ~
]~,! r 1D~IONPOSTALE LrNIVEliS'EL~ RU$SLI~ / ~
~- ~ . . . . ~ ~ I
~ OTt;,PIATOE IlUCbat0.- CAIt'rE POS'I'X~:~[~'~li~,[
" ' z' ~ <`~i <,> - " ~' 1 S" "t
~ - - - ~ ! ( l ~7 J . . . . / "
t i - , / : - , . , ,-'- t L- --eL 7 <" "--=-D
[ . . . . xz c T- ,!
Figure 5
Postcard, mailed by M. Tswett from Simferopol to Briquet, in Ge-
neva. While Tswett indicated the date as 29. IX. 1896, the Simfero-
pol post office canceller has the date of 16. IX. 1896 (OS), which cor-
responds to September 28 in the Gregorian calendar. The card arri-
ved in Geneva on October 4, i.e., six days later.
card arrived in Geneva on Oct ober 4. Sept ember 16 OS,
corresponds to Sept ember 28 NS, which means that it
t ook only six days for the card to travel from Simferopol
to Geneva: this is very fast, but possible. Tswett defi-
nitely want ed to give the dat e according to the Gregor-
ian cal endar used in Switzerland, however, he made a
one-day er r or in recalculating the date: Sept ember 29
NS corresponds to Sept ember 17 OS (and not 16 as indi-
cat ed by the post office canceller).
In the second post card from Si mferopol Tswett indi-
cat ed the dat e as Oct ober 9, 1896, (9. X.), while the Sim-
feropol post office cancellation has t he dat e of Septem-
ber 27, and the card arrived in Geneva on Oct ober 15.
Again, Tswet t gave the dat e in t he Gr egor i an calendar,
but now his dat e was correct: Sept ember 27 OS, the post
office canceller' s date, corresponds to Oct ober 9 NS, the
dat e given by Tswett.
We also have t hree postcards written by Tswet t from St.
Pet ersburg, and - as ment i oned - there, he followed the
Julian calendar; however, he made obvious errors in
writing the date, e.g., giving III. (March) instead of II.
(February), and 29. X. instead of 19. X. (see Part II).
In our t r eat ment we always identify the letters and cards
according to the dat e given by Tswett, even if it seems to
be incorrect.
As shown by these postcards, mail to Geneva was sur-
prisingly fast: it t ook 6--7 days from Si mferopol and as
fast as t hree days from St. Petersburg. Today, with air
mail, one woul d be surprised to be even close to the
speed they achi eved 100 years ago.
For bet t er organization we divided the cor r espondence
into t hree parts. Part I. includes Bri quet ' s eval uat i on of
Tswett' s thesis and Tswett' s letters wri t t en in 1896, dur-
ing the first mont hs after his arrival in Russia. Part II.
deals with Tswett' s letters wri t t en from St. Pet ersburg,
bet ween December 30, 1896, and Oct ober 29, 1898. Fi-
nally, Part III. includes two late letters wri t t en by Tswet t
in 1915 and 1917. In each case we give a general intro-
duction fol l owed by the t ransl at i on of the letters and
then, the specific notes and comments.
Briquet's Reviews of Tswett's Thesis
As ment i oned earlier, the Geneva col l ect i on also con-
tains - besides the letters - t wo notes by Br i quet con-
cerning Tswet t ' s Thesis. Since these pr edat e the actual
correspondence, we start with these.
Aft er receiving his bachel or' s degree in science, in 1893,
Tswett cont i nued his studies at Geneva University, ma-
550 Chromatographia Vol. 44, No. 9/10, May 1997 Historical Paper
j ori ng in botany. First he has worked in t he laboratory of
professor Rober t Chodat ~ at t he Botanical Institute (In-
stitut de Botanique), carrying out some research on the
anat omy of Solanaceae, for which he was awarded the
Humphr y Davy Prize TMof Geneva University, in 1894. '1
However, in 1895 - according to Dhdr6 [1] "as a result of
some incidents at the University which followed the ap-
poi nt ment of E. Yung to t he zoology chair, ' ' n Tswett left
t he l aborat ory of Chodat and j oi ned t he Laborat ory of
General Bot any (Laboratoire de Botanique Gdn~rale)
of Professor Marc Thury. 6 (Figures 2-3). We do not
know what t hese "incidents" were. However, it should
be not ed that an obvious animosity was formed bet ween
Chodat and Tswett (or maybe bet ween Chodat and
Thury?). This is clear from Briquet' s l et t er of January 22,
1896 (the translation of which is given below). It is also
interesting to not e that while in t he preface of his Thesis
[14] Tswett acknowledges t he help he received at t he
University from his professors, advisers and colleagues, 13
Chodat is not ment i oned at a l l ) 4
Tswett finished his Thesis work in Professor Thury' s
l aborat ory around t he end of 1895 and t hen he compiled
a draft of his Thesis. Evi dent l y this was reviewed by Bri-
quet who t hen pr epar ed a report t he draft of which is in
t he Geneva files. It is unsigned, but t he handwriting is
identical to Briquet' s l et t er of January 22, 1896, which
we also give here. This draft is undat ed, but it had to be
written prior to January 22,1896, because in his letter of
that date, Briquet al ready refers to it.
Apparent l y what happened was that Tswett wrot e a pre-
liminary text of his Thesis which he submitted to t he
Faculty (or to Thury); however, for its cust omary publi-
cation in t he University periodical - t he Archives des
Sciences Physiques et Naturelles de Gendve (the "Ar-
chives") - and in t he periodical just started by Thury and
edi t ed by Briquet, t he Bulletin de Laboratoire de Bo-
tanique GOn~rale de l'Universit~ de Gendve (the "Bulle-
tin"), he want ed to furt her improve it. Meanwhile Bri-
quet left for an ext ended trip ~~and Tswett was also leav-
ing Geneva, for his grand t our in Italy, ending in Russia.
Tswett' s intention was - to which Briquet evidently
agreed - to i mprove and edit this draft during his trip,
and mail t he final text to Briquet as soon as possible.
The January 22, 1896 l et t er of Briquet is addressed to
Cher Monsi eur et Maitre (it is translated her e as "Dear
Sir and Teacher"). It is not stated who this person was:
however, it had to be Professor Thury. The address
"maRre" is used t oward a teacher, somebody at a higher
academi c level than t he writer, and in Briquet' s case,
only Thury would fit this criterion. Also, we should not e
that he speaks about "our joint report " of Tswett' s The-
sis. Since t he Thesis work was carried out in Thury' s
laboratory, with Bri quet serving as t he Thesis adviser, it
woul d be most logical that the review (which obviously
was written by Briquet) was finally signed by both
Thury and Briquet.
D r a f t o f t i l e r e p o r t o n M. S. T s we t t ' s
Tf t e s i s
(undated and unsigne 6nt o6vious y
wr i t t e n fry J o f m Br i q u e t )
The Thesis submitted to t he Faculty of Sciences 6y Mr.
Michel Ts we t t is entitled "Contrtfiutions to t he ~nowfexhje
on tile cffforop fasts andpfasmic membranes." The subject is
6oth very 6road and ext ensi vdy studieA, 6ut tile questions
whi c h are put here are so diffic~t t hat t he most contradic-
tory solutions were sucjgested and ooreement on t hem is f ar
from be/n 0 reached. This exTfains w h y t he research be/no
carried out at present must essentially ai m at stdnnittiru d
data ofm~ined by tile a~hors to experimentas criticism. I n
searching less f or new facts and theories i n f avour of a care-
f ur verif/r.ation of what the previous worriers have done and
said, t he author has, i n our opinion, understood t he re-
quirements expressed afiove and has responded according to
his caFadifities. - I n order to res0fve t he q u e s t i o n as to
whether tile cffforopfasts possess their o wn mem6rane, he
m ino a s ay of vhys a and
V ysiofogico erope es of e mic membranes.
The account whi c h he 9ave is dear and shows a Frofound
s of t he German literature and especially of t he
studies fry Pfeffer, de Vries, Van' t He f t etc., whi c h have
been very fittf.e Enown to French aut horsff The resuhs od-
mi ned permitted hi m to prove exTerimentoSs t he ~sence of
a proper membrane around t he cfis SFeci d studies
of t he fatter, whi ch is covered i n Chapters III and IV, are
especiaffy orhdinaf i n t he Last chapter, where t he cfdoro-
pfasts are studied 6y t he merotomic met ho~ whi ch, unt i l
recenffy, has only 6een a ~ f i e d to t he ceff nucleus. Thi s
method consists of t he isofatiort and artificiaC cuftivatiort of
cffforop~ts o u t s i d e t h e ceff trt soft~ttons, whose osmotic
power can 6e varied accordino to tile exTderimenter's wi s h .
From these very irrterestiruj stugies t he author has been fed
to summarize t he structure of chs i n suflgestino
that they are composed of ~ o parts: a sponoiform stroma of
clfforopfastin and an interstitia~ materi~j metaK/n. The
chlorophyl( pigment forms one body w i t h chforopfastin.
This concept results f r om a number of exFri ment s on
swdf i no, contraction and desadradation , pe~ormed accord-
ino to t he merotomic method of t he author. Cfdoropfasts do
not have their own Ffasmic membrane. The wor~ ends fry
an interestino overview of studies deafino w i t h t he ques-
t i on whet her chloroplasts are ab(e to five indefinitely out-
side t he fivino cytoplasm, and w i t h tile ehyfosenesis of
these bodies. The author has coffected an immense fitera-
Historical Paper Chromatographia Vol. 44, No. 9/10, May 1997 551
ture on his subject on a scale whi c h is unusud, not ordy i n
t he case of b~inrters, but & o i n t he case of specidists.
Thi s wor~ is an interestim 3 cont r~ut i on to t he solution of
gi f f i cdt questions and we recommend i t f or acceptance by
t he Facu&y. I t was ear r i af out i n t he L~or a t or y of Ge nc r d
Botany of t ~ University) ~dufeA by Pr ~. Whury)andsuper-
vi sed by t he as s i s t ant Mr. Brfituct wh o testifies t o t he per-
sistence s hown by t he eandiffate i n ~ i s research f f uf f ~
long months of wor~.
Letter o f Bri quet (to Tfmry) ffatedJa~_v__a_ry
22, 1 8 9 6
Th u r s @) 2 2 Januar y 1 8 9 6
Laboratory of Gencra~ Bot any
Dear Si r and Teaches
I have a~ain s~immed throm3h t he papers of K&bs i n
whi ch, accordin 9 t o Mr. Cho&t ' s persona[ opinion) of_s
interestin~ resus obtained by Mr. Ts wct t were supposed
to be found.
I have not f ound an y t h i ~ ) as my memory flag indi-
eared, wh i c h couig be cfirect(y rdat ed to chf or ap~t s and
t hei r structure. The endos ed fi st of Kfebs' papers) whi c h I
am famffiar wi t h , proves t hi s . I n oAdition, t he farooe boo~ of
Ar t h. Meyer (Untersuchwuden/tbier die cffforophyfff~rner,
publ i shed i n 1 8 9 5 ) does not contain any reference to a pa-
per by Kfebs on this suf~ect) thotudh t he recent bibliography
was utff/zed i n &t a i l
/ f by chance Mr. Kfebs has publ i shed somethiruj more
recently on t he su6ject, not hi n 9 could be easier t h a n t o add
t he quot at i on t o t hose whi c h Mr. Ts we t t included i n his
Thesi s, wi t h o u t j eopardi zi m 3 at d t he value of his wo r L
I n research wher e t wo authors barely a~ree) a cfitica~
experimental control mus t be wdcomed. As I have said i n
our j oi nt report) t he i nt erest of t he w o ~ of Mr. Ts wet t ties
essentially i n t he appl i cat i on of t he mer ot omi c r
t d me f f w4 wh i c h may be amply proven by c o mp a d ~ i t
w i t h t he recent article by Art h. Meyer.
I n my personcff opinion t he wor~) by its ~iffictffties,
and by t he wa y t he aut hor has f m ~ it) is superior to
hosts of ~ c t o r d theses) wh i c h boff down t o research i n t he
f i ef ~ of comparative anatomy carried out by auffwrs with-
out sufficient systematic trainim 3.
I shou~f like t o oAg t h a t t he omission of a quot at i on by
Kfebs) even i f i t was proven by chance t o be correct, coufA
not be a r on for c ticisi basis of
Ts wet t ' s Thesi s. Thi s i s espec/affy c~.ar wh e n one com-
pares i t w i t h t he previously accepted theses, whi c h do not
contain a sin Ce citation o f a pr sor i n t he o f
anatomy ( f or instance t he othem~tse excdfent study of
Mr s. B~ i c k a on t he I f i dace~) .
I ' d like to ash you to inform Mr. Chodat a6out t hi s
fetter as weft as ~ o u t our j o i n t report. I c&sofutdy stand by
t he fatter.
I had hoped t o be excusedf r om attendincj y o u r fecutre
since I am rat her occupied at t he moment and t he t i me
spent i n a probably sterffe discussion is too precious t o me.
I am ~o unavailable today between 5 and 7 o'doc~.
Wi t h respectful regar& , dear Professor~ yours
J. Br ~u c t
Tswett's Letters f rom Si mf eropol
Thes e l et t er s - - f our l et t er s a nd t wo pos t car ds - - deal
wi t h Tswet t ' s movi ng t o Rus s i a i n t he spr i ng of 1896, his
first six mont hs t her e, f i ni shi ng t he ma nus c r i pt of his
Thesis, mai l i ng it t o Geneva; t h e n wai t i ng f or its publ i ca-
t i on and t o r ecei ve his di pl oma. We can also r e a d a bout
his first a t t e mpt s t o f i nd s ome e mp l o y me n t .
We have al r eady me n t i o n e d i n t he I n t r o d u c t i o n t ha t i n
1895 t he f at her of Mi chel - wh o si nce 1882 has be e n
living in Swi t zer l and wi t h his f ami l y - de c i de d t o r e t ur n
t o Russi a. He was a p p o i n t e d t he he a d of f i nances of
Tauri a Pr ovi nce (whi ch i nc l ude d t he Cr i me a n pe ni ns ul a
and par t of s o u t h e r n Ukr a i ne ) , wi t h t he t i t l e of a pri vy
counci l l or - equi val ent t o a gener al ' s pos i t i on in t he civil
st at us - and i n Mar ch 1895, t he y mo v e d ( except Mi chel ,
who was fi ni shi ng his t hesi s) t o t he Cr i mea, set t l i ng i n
Si mf er opol , whi ch at t hat t i me was t he admi ni s t r at i ve
cent er of Tauria. Se me n Ts we t t r e nt e d t he " Da c ha
St even, " a cot t age out s i de t he t own. 18 A p h o t o of t he
hous e is s hown i n Fi gur e 8 of ref. [2] and Fi gur e 17 of ref.
[4]. This is t he pl ace t o whe r e Mi chel Ts wet t mo v e d
t owar d t he mi ddl e of 1896.
We do not k n o w exact l y wh e n M. Ts wet t l eft Geneva.
Evi dent l y, he f i ni shed t he dr af t of his Thesi s by t he e nd
of 1895: Br i que t al r eady r ef er s t o it i n his J anuar y 22,
1896 l et t er (see above) , t hus, by t hen, it had t o be ready.
As me n t i o n e d above, Ts wet t ' s pl a n was t o t ake t hi s pr e-
l i mi nar y t ext wi t h hi m on hi s t ri p, edi t it f or publ i cat i on,
and mai l it ba c k t o Br i quet as s oon as possi bl e. Howe ve r ,
this was del ayed and he ma i l e d t he fi nal t ext t o Br i que t
onl y on July 18 (July 30 accor di ng t o t he Gr e gor i a n cal-
endar ) f r om Russi a.
Fi gur e 4 is a p h o t o g r a p h of M. Ts wet t f r om 1895/96.
Dh6r 6 [1] shows t he s ame p h o t o ori gi nal l y gi ven t o Cla-
per ~de by Tswet t , and me n t i o n s t ha t on t he back of t hat
p h o t o Ts wet t wr ot e "t o my de a r f r i end Ed o u a r d Cla-
par ade, as a s ouveni r for t he f our ha ppy mo n t h s s pent at
Champel , " d a t e d Mar ch 7, 1896) 9 Thi s me a ns t ha t t he
earl i est Ts wet t coul d l eave Ge n e v a was a r o u n d t he mi d-
di e of March.
552 Chromatographia Vol. 44, No. 9/10, May 1997 Historical Paper
M. Ts wet t c o mb i n e d his mo v e t o Russi a wi t h a " gr and
t o u r " t h r o u g h s o u t h e r n Fr ance and Italy, s t oppi ng i n
Marsei l l e, Fl or ence, Ro me and Napl es, also vi si t i ng t he
l ocal uni ver si t i es a nd bot ani cal l abor at or i es. Most l i kel y
his shi p f r om I t al y ( pr obabl y l eavi ng t he por t of Napl es)
l a nde d i n Ode s s a whi ch was t h e n t he maj or s eapor t f or
i nt e r na t i ona l t r avel and c o mme r c e i n s out he r n Russi a:
accor di ng t o hi s l et t er of No v e mb e r 13, 1896, t he pack-
age wi t h t he r epr i nt s of his t hesi s also ar r i ved t here.
I n Odes s a Ts wet t vi si t ed Ludvi g Al'bertovich Rishavi,
pr of es s or of bot a ny and di r ect or of t he Bot ani cal Gar -
d e n at Novor os s i s k Uni ver si t y, 2~ a p r o mi n e n t bot ani s t i n
s o u t h e r n Russi a; evi dent l y, Ts wet t had gr eat hopes t o
f i nd a pos i t i on at this uni ver si t y 2~ and as his l et t er indi-
cates, he e ve n b r o u g h t wi t h hi m s ome l et t er s of r ecom-
me n d a t i o n s t o hel p hi m i n achi evi ng this. Obvi ousl y, at
t ha t t i me he di d not have any i dea of t he pr obl e m havi ng
a f or ei gn di pl oma. Qui t e honest l y, it is har d t o under -
s t and t ha t Ts wet t di d not i nqui r e a he a d about t he situa-
t i on i n Rus s i a par t i cul ar l y si nce obvi ousl y, t he possi bi l -
ity of j oi ni ng Novor os s i s k Uni ver s i t y was on his mi nd
even be f or e he l eft Swi t zerl and: ot her wi s e he woul d not
have l et t er s of r e c o mme n d a t i o n s t o Ri shavi wi t h hi m.
The f ol l owi ng l et t er s i l l ust r at e M. Ts wet t ' s first mont hs
i n Russi a, his opt i mi s t i c a t t i t ude hopi ng t o f i nd s oon a
pos i t i on at t he Uni ver s i t y of Odes s a ( Novor ossi sk Uni -
ver si t y) , t h e n wai t i ng for his Thesi s and finally, real i zi ng
t ha t he has no o p p o r t u n i t y i n Odessa.
Dear Sir,
Simf~ropoC, 6. j a y z~96.
Dacha Steven
You may wef t he surprised when you retum from your
t ri p, t h a t y o u don' t f i n d t he manus cr i pt of t hi s wret ched
Thesi s.
Tftinftiru 3 of a[s the trouf~[e and anxiety i t fias caused
me, I as~ myse~ not wi t h o u t arujuish , what i t is 9oiru3 to
be Cif~ f or my f ut ur e worL I 9et my confidence bac~ 6),
6famirr d my inefficiency on the overworft from whi ch I
have not recovered as yet .
I n any case I reo~y was unafife to f i ni sh my e d i f i ~
dur~n~ my trip. A t the moment I have 40 pcades whi ch I
am f ul l y satisfied w~th. I f I am not mistaf~en, I could send
i t to you w/ t h o u t &fay.
I am only afraid t fi at tile pu6f i cat i on deadiine mhjht
have 6een mi ssed. I hope, howeve5 t fi at a f e w wee~' ffehrf
cou(d 6e excused.
As f or the study on osmotic pressures, I eertain[y have
not_qiven i t up; aff the data are avaifa6fe, the plan fias 6een
foffowed tftrom3G and the e di t i ~ won' t taf~ rowdY How-
ever~ at t hi s mome nt I shal l defer t hi s, so tfiat I can f i ni sh
my Thesis f i rst and mail i t to you.
I imagine your trip to tile Afps was successful i n off
respects 14 and I already see t fi at ma ny ofyour 6iofogicaf o6-
servations are prMudn~, under your sftiffuf pen, one of
t hose 6eaut/fuf 6h 3 volumes, whi ch f ar , you so little ~fort
to w~r ~t ~y seem ~ he born as i f by m~i c.
My trt F to I ~y was suV~, fi~r~y ~isturbed at ~ 6)/
my worries. Durim 3 t ~ journey I made the acquaintance of
Mr. Hacdt d (?) i n Marsei~; Mr. Carng i n Florence; Mr.
Pirrotta i n Rome, and off tile ~lenffemen at ff3e zoofo~ica~
s t at i on i n Napes. Mr. Carnd is i n a redly 6oA shape. He
has hoA s ever d stro~.s and his intellect is very much i m-
paired.
Mr. Pirrotta showed me around his I nst i t ut e, whi ch
is superb. The 9arden 6efomdiru d to i t fias some very 6eauti-
fus tropica[ arborescent species. Amonfl others I admired an
EPhedra altissima, a Grevillea robusta, some Casuarines,
arras trees 5 - 1 0 meters fthdh. Wi t f , aff these fivir~ species
avaffafiG what 6eaut / fuf st udi es one cou/ g do! The I ns t i -
tute is very wef t laid out. The rooms are very 6rkdftt and
spacious: there is a chemicaf faboratoryj coffectionflaffer/es,
a fi6rary t ha t t o f ~ aff t i l e periodicals - notftin~ is missim d.
NaphffwSene is used as a preservative i n the herbarium.
There is a rather nice coffection of instruments: micro-
scopes of different ~ , a microspectroscope, an apparatus
for monochromat i c igumination, a West mann mode[ chro-
nostat ( absofu~y s&nt ) etc.
I n Odessa I was presented to Prof. Rishavi, z~ a man of
heroic stature, sf ~hf f y reminiscent of Victor Emmanuel,
Wi t h a fwatrious 6ear~ he eats fif~ four and drinlu accord-
i ~ 3 c y . He was e~e.~y ~. My c~rs of r ~mme~-
tion fiave made an exceffent impression. He fed me to ex-
pect that x would soon find eW~yme~.
I' ff write to you as soon as this is accomplished. The
(oSoratory is not w/ t h o u t resources. There i s some nice ap-
paratus for 9asometry (peFfccted 6)/Timiryaz~v), a cfinostat
by lffeffer and a ni ce au~nometer.
Mr. Rishavi was te~itu 3 me some trice an~do~. s a6out
Pfeffer (whom he profoundly +i di ~s), t h a t he hear+ f rom
Sachs.
5imferopd is a Citt& provincied city wi t h a whogy bu-
reaucratic ~trnosphere. H~/~/Cy we five i n the countryside
and are isolated from the world. Af t around us there are sev-
eral smog biffs, r o c ~ i n places, wi t h a r e d s t e ~ e charac-
ter: ~y a series of Progressivdy ft~her undul at i ons you
reach t he f oot of t he mount ai ns i n t he sout h- east direction
- o f t ~ e the ~3~t i s the chatyra. 3 (about z5so me-
t e r s ) , whi ch is located 1 5 ~m f rom here. I am pf anni ~ to
have f r equent excursions i n these mountains.
Historical Paper Chromatographia Vol.44,No.9/10, May 1997 553
W i t h my manuscript I sting send y o u some of tile
Pcants wh i c h seemeA t o me t o be new. I f erie p(ams o f f , i s
country are of arty interest t oyou I'ffsendexampfes toyou.
Here i n tile plain tile climate is very dry, wi t h tile sun
bumitu 3 riot i n summer and violent winds ... og (ex~iru 3
y ou to expect to f i n d many ~zrotfiermic a&tnations. I n tile
mountains, on tile other fiand,/t often rains and tile plateau
f or mi N tile top of every mountai~ is dways 9reen. Tile
s~es are woo~.
I sfiou[d be 9ratefiff i f you cou~ ~ me ~now about tile
ar r t vd of my Tfiesis and flow [otu 3 tile pfintitu 3 w/ ~ tofee.
Wo u ~ you be so ~ind as to pass on my 9reaings to
~rg. T~ury and ~ ta me~bers of your f ~y.
Let me coru3ratufate you upon your fort&omiru 3 mar-
tinge and wi s h you and your w ~ tile most peeect fiapp i-
hesS.
Yours sineerdy,
M. Ts wet t
some bo~ in ~ for~ of bi o~g~ obser~a~o, and inter-
esan 9 exs/ccam.
Wi t ~ my Tfiesis I am sendin 9 you some sampks
wh i d ~ I f l ar e f o u n d i n t i l e surroundi ngs. I f y o u f i nd t f i e m
interestiru 3, I wo u ~ be 9fad to 9atfier tile endem/c plants as
nke specimens for you to flare tfiem &i af alwopriatdy.
Wi t hi n a wee~ or two I propose to start wr t t i ~ tile
paper on osmotic pressures. I n generd I shaft do my best to
contribute f r ~u e n f f y t o t i l e Buf f et i n. 23 As soon as you flare
received my Tfiesis you would greagy o6[ige me 6y inform-
iru 3 mej since I am rattier anxious about it. I f i t were lost!!
Anyway you sfiou~ receive i t at tile same t i me as t~is fet-
ter. I t was sent rexjistered.
Wi t h (rind regar& to you andyour wi f i , sincere~
M. Tswett
Mr. Risfiavi to wfiom I ficd sfioum our Bulletin, said
fie wo u ~ 6e very 9 ~ to receive issues of this publication.
I t wouf, d 6e very ~ind i f you cou~ sent me No. 2. wfien you
flare t i me. 24
Letter of J u~y 18, 1896
Simferopd, 18 Ju~y 1896.
Dear Sir,
I flare tile pleasure to sendyou, ~y tile same post, tile
f i n d manuscript of my never-endin 9 Thesis. I t is high
time! You m~h t o6serve tfiat I flare cowf et dy resfiapeg i t
and I hope t hat i n tile present f orm its vogue won' t be too
disproporaonate to tile effor~ i t fins cost me.
I have remade tile figures so tile)/can be con&nsd
onto one Plate and flare profited from tile improvements
whi ch you were ~ind enotujh to carry out i n my f i rst dr @.
I am endosiru 3 some remarks regardin 9 tile pdnt i n 9.
You wi f f do wf i at you consider to be correct.
Now there is tile important question of fire proofs. I t
is out of tile question to send tfiem fiere - but on tile other
fiand I cannot affow t f i at you sfioufd beforce~ to see tfiem
yoursdfl under tile present circumstances this would be a
doubly tedious drudgery. I sfiaff tfiergCore as~you to entrust
tile matter to a proof-reader wfiosefee I sfiog cover.
Now t hat I have rid mys df of this wor~, whi ch has
been absorbin 9 tile best of my streru3th, I ' m goin 9 to t o ~ a
bit of a rest and prepare mys df f or tile prob~ms of stru e-
9ci~3 for ~istence. wi t h ~ a@ of Mr. e.is~,,i i,~soon
b ~ i n to do somet hi m 3 about t hi s and I fiopr t fi at I sfia~
f i nd soma~iru 3 i n tile autumn. In tile meantime I sfiaff see
tile steppe and tile mountain again and try to return wi t h
P o s t c a r d o f Se[r 2 9 j 1 8 9 6 "~s
S imferopof, 29. September 1896. 25
Dacfia Steven
Dear S irj
I am very worried t hat I have not had any message
about my Tfiesis. I woufg be 9ratefur to 6e informed as to
w~at ~ ~eneX to it.
Have tfie Archives 23 agrcexf to 6ear part of tile e~cpenses
4 trig P~ate? 26 Nothitu d is new fiere for tile moment. I am
waititu 3 impatienffy for my worf~.
Wi t h ~,ind regarcfs, sincerdy yours
M. Ts we t t
Er r a t u m. At tile end of tile fast cfiatner I twice
wrote grouppement instead of groupement.
For tile paper on o s mo ~ pressures I am wai t i n 9 to re-
m m t o O ~ s a as I f e a r t f i a t n e w p u b &a t i o n s ont hi s sub-
ject cot~f flare appeareg since May.
P o s t c a r d ; o f October 9~ 189627
Simf~ropof, 9. Octofier 189627
Dacfia Steven
Don' t 6e off~ndexf, dear Sir, i f I 6otfier you again about
my Thesis i n as~itu d you to speed up its publication as
much as possible. I t is of primary importance to flare this
554 Chromatographia Vol. 44, No. 9/10, May 1997 Historical Paper
dissertation wi t hout further &fay. Wi t hout tile Thesis and
w/ t hout the gip(oma my hands are tied. 281 assume t hat tile
f i r st part of the dissertation wi g appear shorgy. 2~ I hope
that accorgiru 3 to the information you lave me the second
half wi g fie dgivered immediatdy and that i n addition to
the copies intended f or the Faculty, I can simu&aneous(y
ofrazin some copies, whi ch I need urgently i n my inquiries
to tier a job.
I s hou~ Of-so askyou to send me a bifffor the expenses.
Than~iru 3 you i n anticipation, wi t h my kindest re-
gards,
yours sincerdy
M. T.
Letter o f o c t o be r 15, 1 8 9 6
Simferopofj 15. October 1896
Dear Si5
I was very ~reeoS(y surprisedtoday to receive the co D
its of my Thesis - receipt of whi ch was &&yed a bit & to
my short stay at the University of O&ssa. 3~
How can I express my thanf~s sufficiently for off the
care you have l i ven to tile process ofprepariru 3 i t f or p ~ f i -
cation! Ifi ndt hat the Plate has beenveryweffflone andthe
a/most pegCect t ype- set t i ~ m a ~ me sorry for the precious
moments you flea to spend f or the corrections.
I also t h a ~ you for comvi(i W the tab& of contents
and f or modifyi W some pofemieaf phrases wh i r l I over-
looked chtrt~ the f i nal e di t i ~ process andwhose sharpness
I WOI ~ have ttow r e . g d r e D . e d . 31
A m o ~ the rare misprints whi ch I have found there
are some whi ch seem to me raffter serious and whose cor-
rection either i n wri t i W or ~y t)Tography (gt here is st i g
time) would be very desiroSfe:
p. 146 (24) note 1 fine 6: they have printed 93 % in-
stead Of 9 %
p. 194 (72) fine 2 f rom 6dow andp. 195 (73) fine
13 f rom the top and note 2 fine 1: tile)/have printed "ab-
sorption" instead of adsorptian.
p.161 (39) fine 8 f rom the top: "surtout" instead of
$ouvent.
The misprint "absorption" is especiagy unfortunate
and i f there is no means of correctina 3 i t i n tile t e~, i t WOUhf
be necessary to indicate i t i n tile Errata, tither i n tile Bul-
&tin or i n tile Archives.
There are some other (ess ser/ous misprints: (Note: we
omi t the listing of these here, in the translation)
I am most dg/zjhted to have these copies of my Thesis.
I shag send them to Petersfurg to Borodin 32 (you know
him, I hope, he's a (earned man and extremdy a~ree~fe),
and to Ovsyanni ov, Emeritus Professor o f P nt Physiof-
myf t r's University co ue.3,
I t floes not seem t hat I wi f f f i nd a positive outcome i n
O&ssa. I plan to wai t impatiently f or my Diploma and I' f f
send the us ud smdf bonus to Mr. Demont w/ t hout d&y.
Wouf d you be so kind as to &t hi m know the aff&ess en-
dosed here.
The inactivity I see myself condemned to wef l f i s
heaviCy on me; I hope to be a6fe to inform you n e ~ t i me
a6out a decisive step forward. May I reiterate my most sin-
czregratitu&for aff you flare &ne f or me; I wi s h to f i nd an
opportunity to be us~uf to you i n return. I hope, Si s t hat
you wi g inform me from time to t i me oSout your wor~,
your projects, your fife, everythiru 3 what wouf g be Of.qreat
interest to me.
My warmest rexjar&, yours t ngy
M. Tswet t
sw dmoh?' has asked f or some copies o f the work;
one cogg 9ive him two.
L e t t e r o f N o v e mb e r 13j 1896
Simferopof, 13. November 1896.
Dear Sirj
I shaft not flo to Odessa at al l Mr. Borodin from St.
Petersfiur 9, whose advice I had asked when I was sendim d
him my Thesis, has assured me tfiat I wi g now receive the
permission and support to wofft at the Physi cd Laboratory
Of the Aza&my Of sdenees. This is a positive result at fast,
and I tftin~ t hat i n my present circumstances I shall take
advanteuje Of the proFosd and ma& my way more qui rgy
than I would otherwise. Thus I sfudd &ave wi t hi n one or
t wo weeks.
The reprints Of my Tfw~sis have been ~ p t at the Cus-
toms i n O&ssa for 3 weeks.Just imo~jine - I have not fieen
oS[e to o f ~i n them yet! Ineigentagy, S i s case is fly no
means exceptional This is the way our administration
wor~5 .
Neither have I received Issue No. 3 Of the Buffetin,
whose di s V~h you t o ~ me oSout.
The artide on osmotic pressures whi ch you reminded
me r i n your fast fetter is 6y no means forgouen. The
reason is only that I have fieen a6sofutefy kdnorant of aW-
thin 9 9oin9 on i n the sciemific worfg f or the past 6
Historical Paper Chromatographia Vol. 44, No. 9/10, May 1997 555
months, so I am anxious tfiat t he literature on t he su6ject
mi s h t have 9t own d u r t w t hi s t i me.
I therefore prefer to pos~one t he e d i t i ~ of t hi s arti~e
t o a t i me w h e n I w i g 6e i n a pos i t i on t o undertafeg trip nec-
essary 6i6fiogroThicaf search. No doubt y ou mus t have
come to t he conclusion t hat I am not a rdiabfe co(fiff3orator,
since my manuscrttns are never ready i n time.
I hope t hat up to now these procrastinations areparffy
excusable ~y t he circumstances. Nevertfidess, I sfiag i n f u -
ture do my 6r to be more punctual, i n the German sty&.
Recently I have read i n the Travaux de fa Soa impd-
riafe des natur, de St . Pftersb., XXVII, fiwe i ( 1896) a
short and very interestiru 3 paper wftich may have escaped
your attention (there is a German summary i n t he same i s-
sue of t he same collection): J. Kfirtse, 3s Z u r Biofogie der
Bfiite.
Duriru 3 a botanical excursion to Terrafera (near Dor-
p a t ) 36 t h e author observedj i n tile bushy dumps of Fradaria
vesca i n 6fossom, some Viola canina f l ore a[6o whi c h were
t o be f ound e x d u s i v d y there - whi l e t he same species out -
side t hese part i cul ar d u mp s were onl y seen vvtth vi ol et
f l ower s . Furt her on, at t he e@e o f a f orest , t he aut hor re-
port ed t he s ame (ocafisation o f Vi ol a cani na f l . a[6o i n a
9roue of plants wi t h whi t e flowers (Mechringia, Oxalis,
Anemone nemorosa). Al so f ound i n t he same 9 r o ~ were 6
specimens of H~ a t i c a trifoba w i t h whi t e flowers (fate
flowertru3) and w/ t h perigonixg sections smager t han i n
o.ng ers.
The mt t hor considers tfiesefindirtcjs to be exp~ica6fr as
a phenomenon o f mi mi cry, w h e n t i l e f l owers adopt t he
wh i t e cofour of t he ncighfiouring flowers - at this season of
t he year, t hi s is t he dominatin 5 co(ou5 as i t is pr~Cerred 6y
i nsect s.
Do n ' t y o u t hi n~ t hat t hi s quest i on, wh i c h i s ~ i nt er-
est to 6iofogy as a whol e f r om a 9enerd point of view,
wot t ~ 6e worth reinvesti~atinS, either ~y simple o6serva-
tion, or ~y experimentation wh i c h woul d be conclusive?
There wo n ' t ~y any6ody other tfian you aft& to study the
quest i on t o t he e x t e nt rexluired.
I s h a f f f ~ y o u f mow a3out my departure a n d I foo~for-
ward to o f ~ i n i mj news f r om y o u and Mr. Thury i n St. Pe-
t ers6ur 9.
Ki nd retjarffs, your s
M. Tswet t
I i rrt ~i ne t hat the big refat/ru d to my Thesis is wi t h
the reprints beiru d detained at t he Customs i n Odessa. I f
not, I wi g as~ theprtnter to sendi t wi t hout delay to the fo-
cod address, namely: Simfiropof - Country House Steven.
I have received my diploma. Recently I wrote to Mr.
Thury. Has my fetter reached him?
No t e s
1 Concerning the spelling of his family name, see later. With
regard to his first name, we use both Mikhail (the Russian
way) and Michel (the French form). Usually, he did not indi-
cate his middle name (his patronym): in his letters and in his
publications in western journals, he simply wrote his name as
M. Tswett.
z Dmitrii losifovich Ivanovskii (1864-1920), a Russian micro-
biologist, who is generally considered as the discoverer of vi-
ruses as a conclusion of his study, in 1890, of the mosaic di-
sease of tobacco in the Crimea. In St. Petersburg, he became
one of the best friends of M. Tswett. Toward the end of 1901
he was appointed as professor of botany at the University of
Warsaw and he invited Tswett to join him there.
3 This Prize carried with it a cash premium of 1000 Rubels. It is
interesting to compare this amount with salaries. The yearly
pension of the widow of Semen Tswett (whose position, of a
privy councillor, was equivalent to a general's rank) was
3500 Rubels which permitted her to educate two of her
daughters at the Sorbonne, in Paris. In 1889, an ordinary
(full) professor at a Russian university was paid 3000 Rubels
per year.
4 Publications about Tswett's life usually speak about his "re-
turning to Russia." However, one can only return to so-
mewhere where he had already been. On the other hand M.
Tswett has never been before in Russia: as mentioned he
was born in Italy and has lived in Switzerland. This is the
reason we use here the expression "move."
5 Clapar~de's full name was Edouard Jean Alfred Clapar~de,
and Tswett consistently called him in his letters as Edouard.
It is interesting, however, that in the preface of his Thesis, he
gives his name as A. Clapardde. For details on the life and ac-
tivities of Clapar6de, see Hais [19].
6 Jean-Marc Antoine Thury (1822-1905) had been associated
with the Universit6 de Gen~ve as a professor since 1851. In
1872 he organized the Laboratoire de Botanique G~n&ale,
which he directed until his retirement in 1900.Tswett carried
out his thesis work in this laboratory. In 1896 Thury esta-
blished the Bulletin (see note 2s) - edited by Briquet - as the
major organ of this laboratory.
7 According to Dh6r6 [1] the collection in Geneva Botanical
Library consisted of 15 letters and 8 postcards, all addressed
to Briquet. The copies received by us contained indeed 15
letters, but only five postcards. Hais [19] referred to the pos-
sible existence of an additional postcard written in 1915, but
this was an incorrect information, based on my error (LSE).
8 Charles Dh&d (1876-1955) was from 1900 to 1938 professor
of physiology and biological chemistry at the University of
Fribourg, in Switzerland. He was an early follower of Tswett,
carrying out chromatographic investigations already in 1912.
After his retirement in 1938, Dh4r6 moved to Geneva and
became associated with the Institute of Zoology of the Uni-
versity. Among others he also studied the life and activities
of Tswett and published in 1943 his first definitive biography
[11.
9 Robert Chodat (1865-1934) became in 1889 extraordinary
and in 1891 ordinary professor of botany, medicine and
pharmacy at Geneva University, and director of the Botani-
cal Institute. In 1908-1910 he has served as the rector of the
University.
lo This prize was established in 1829 by Lady Davy in memory
of her husband who died in Geneva.
11 This report has not been published at that time; later, in St.
Petersburg,Tswett expanded this work and finally published
it in 1899 [24].
556 Chromatographia Vol. 44,No. 9/10, May 1997 Historical Paper
12
13
1 4
15
16
17
18
2(]
21
22
Emi l Yung (I854-1918) became i n 1883 associate and i n 1895
professor of zoology at Geneva University.
Tswet t specifically t hanks M. Thury i n whose l aborat ory his
research was conduct ed, and t hen lists those to whom he
want s to specially express his grat i t ude for their advise, en-
cour agement , or l endi ng books and i nst rument s. These were
John Briquet, his thesis advisor, Casimir de Condolle
(1836-1918) whose l i brary he used, Charles Soret
(1854-1904: professor of mi ner al ogy and experi ment al phy-
sics), Philippe-August Guye (1862-1922: professor of chemi-
stry) and Dr A. Clapardde 5 (his fri end and colleague at t he
university). It is pecul i ar t hat Chodat , who was his professor
of bot any and in whose l abor at or y Tswet t started his scienti-
fic career, is not ment i oned at all, while two of his undergra-
duat e t eachers (Soret and Guye) are.
It is i nt erest i ng to not e t hat in t he book about botanists i n
Geneva which Br i quet compi l ed [21], Chodat is not inclu-
ded, al t hough he was for a l ong t i me professor of bot any at
Geneva University.
Br i quet ' s bi ography [21] emphasi zes t he yearly ext ended
bot ani cal trips i n which he part i ci pat ed with a few selected
colleagues, most l y i n t he Swiss Alps, but also in ot her part s of
Europe, which great l y cont r i but ed to t hei r under st andi ng of
t he flora of t he regi on. The first of these trips was organized
in 1895.
Benedikt Pierre George Hochreutiner (1873-1959) was also a
doct oral candi dat e i n Thur y' s l abor at or y t oget her with
Tswett. Lat er he became professor of bot any at Geneva Uni -
versity. He suppl i ed to Dh6r6, for his article [1], most of t he
i nf or mat i on about Tswet t .
It is worthwhile to speak here briefly about Tswet t ' s com-
mand of languages. Fr ench was his pri nci pal language: in fact
even later, i n Warsaw, he preferred to use it with his wife as
t he l anguage of conversat i on. Fr om his father, duri ng his ex-
t ended stays i n Swi t zerl and, Michel l earned Russi an alt-
hough accordi ng to Sakodynski i , i n t he first years after his
move to Russia, his Russi an was far from perfect. His Certifi-
cat de Maturit~ (high school di pl oma) shows that he l ear ned
Ger man and Engl i sh i n high school [6, 7]. His st ep-mot her
was of Ger man ori gi n and he furt her i mproved his Ger man
with her. The fact t hat i n 1898 (see Part II) Bri quet proposed
hi m a posi t i on i n Ge r ma ny also i ndi cat es t hat M. Tswet t ob-
viously had a good command of Ger man. I n his l et t er of Fe-
br uar y 22, 1897 (see Part II), M. Tswet t ment i ons that he is
worki ng on his Engl i sh and thus, he most likely could at least
read i n t hat language. Ther e are also some indications t hat
he at least under st ood It al i an.
Khristian Khristianovich Steven (1781-1863) was one of the
famous earl y Russi an botanists. I n 1812 St even founded a
Bot ani cal Gar den i n t he village Nikita, near Yalta, where the
cl i mat e is subt ropi cal and, for a l ong period, he has served as
its director. Lat er i n his life St even bui l t a modest house, with
a large garden, out si de Si mferopol and this was rent ed by Se-
men Tswet t from St even' s son.
Champel was t he name of t he old house with a large garden
i n Geneva, in which Edouar d Cl apar~de was bor n and has li-
ved in most of his life. Tswet t oft en visited this house and
most likely, he was actually living t here for t he last mont hs of
his stay in Geneva, aft er his fat her and the rest of the family
left for Russia.
Ludvig Al' bertovich Rishavi (1851-1915) was professor of
bot any and di rect or of the Bot ani cal Gar den at Novorossisk
University. At t hat t i me Ri shavi was t he most pr omi nent bo-
t ani st in sout her n Russi a and evidently, Tswet t had great ho-
pes to find a posi t i on at this university.
One must be careful not to mix up Novorossisk University
l ocat ed in Odessa, with t he city o f Novorossisk, on the nort -
her n shore of t he Black Sea, over 300 km east of Odessa! The
name of t he Uni ver si t y can be t raced to t he plans of Cat heri -
ne the Gr eat to bui l d a "new Russi a" ("Novorossisk") in t he
sout h, in t he t erri t ori es j ust conquer ed from Turkey.
We shall r ead about this many times. However, apparently,
Tswet t never fi ni shed this st udy and never wrote a paper
about it.
23
This is t he Bulletin de Laboratoire de Botanique G~n~rale de
l'Universitd de Gen~ve, t he periodical of t he Gener al Bot ani -
cal Labor at or y of Geneva University. It was f ounded by
Thury i n 1896, and edi t ed by Bri quet . On t he ot her hand, t he
Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles de Gendve was
a general scientific peri odi cal of Geneva Uni ver si t y which
al ready existed for a numbe r of years. The two were pub-
lished paral l el and evidently, from 1896 on, most work from
Thur y' s Labor at or y was publ i shed in t hese two journals.
24 No. 1 of t he Bulletin was publ i shed (at least nomi nal l y) i n
Apr i l 1896 and i n it, Tswet t had a short paper on the use of
per manganat es in t he mi crot echni ques [25]. Evidently, he
t ook a copy of this issue with him to Russi a. No. 2 of t he
Bulletin was publ i shed after Tswet t ' s depar t ur e, most likely
i n t he Summer, and he agai n had a short paper in it [26]. No. 3
is t he issue in which his Thesis was publ i shed.
2.5 Tswet t indicates t he dat e as Sept ember 29, while t he cancel-
ler of Simferopol post office has t he dat e of Sept ember 16;
the l et t er arrived i n Geneva on Oct ober 4. Thi s makes the
Sept ember 29 dat e in t he Jul i an cal endar impossible: t hat
would correspond to Oct ober 12 in t he Gr egor i an calendar,
what is obviously absurd. Assumi ng t hat Sept ember 16 OS
(t he cancel l at i on of Si mferopol post office) is correct, t hat
woul d correspond to Sept ember 28 in t he Gr egor i an calen-
dar: this means t hat Tswet t made a one- day error i n calcula-
t i ng t he proper date.
26 Tswet t ' s Thesis as publ i shed in bot h j our nal s had a very ela-
bor at e color plate: its pr i nt i ng was pr obabl y qui t e expensive
in 1896.
27 Oct ober 9 0 S would cor r espond to Oct ober 21 in the Grego-
r i an calendar: since t he card arrived at Geneva post office on
Oct ober 15, this is obvi ousl y an absurd date. On t he ot her
hand, t he canceller of Si mferopol post office is dat ed Sep-
t ember 27 OS, what cor r esponds to Oct ober 9, t he dat e i ndi -
cated by Tswet t in his card.
28 Tswet t finally st art ed to real i ze the pr obl ems he was facing
i n obt ai ni ng an academi c empl oyment , al t hough evidently,
he was not yet aware of t he pr obl em havi ng a forei gn degree
which is not recognized i n Russia.
29 As we have seen in Br i quet ' s review, Tswet t ' s Thesis consi-
sted of two parts: discussion of plasmic membr anes and t he
prot opl asma, and discussion of the chloroplasts; and he ap-
par ent l y assumed t hat t hey will be publ i shed separately. Ac-
tually, the two parts were publ i shed t oget her i n t he Bulletin
under t he title Etudes de physiologie cellulaire: contribution
d la connaissance des mouvements du protoplasme, des mem-
branes plasmiques et des chloroplastes ("St udi es on the phy-
siology of cells: cont r i but i on to our knowl edge on the move-
ment of the prot opl asm, on plastic membr anes and chlo-
roplasts"). However, t he Archives split t he Thesis i nt o t hree
parts: Part I was ent i t l ed Etudes de physiologie cellulaire, 1:
Des membranes plasmiques et des mouvements du protoptas-
me; t he title of Part II was Les chloroplastes; and of Part III,
Etude des chloroplastes par la mdthode m~rotomique. I n t he
Bulletin publ i cat i on, this Part III is actually a subchapt er of
t he discussion of t he chloroplasts.
3o We are not sure which publ i cat i on did Tswet t receive at this
time, but most likely, it was nei t her the Bulletin, nor t he Ar-
chives, but some ot her pri nt i ng. We have not seen the respec-
tive issue(s) of the Archives, but onl y t he Bulletin: the i nt e-
rest i ng is that it has an Errata, listing all t he corrections in-
cl uded in Tswet t ' s letter. I n ot her words, t he fi nal pri nt i ng of
No. 3 of the Bulletin occurred onl y after Br i quet received this
l et t er of Tswett. The publ i cat i on dat e of No. 3 is given on its
title page as Oct ober 15,1896, but obviously, this is a nomi nal
date: t he actual publ i cat i on dat e had to be later. Tswet t ' s let-
t er is dat ed Oct ober 15 but we are not sure whet her this is gi-
ven i n t he Jul i an or t he Gr egor i an cal endar, but anyway, Bri-
quet cannot have recei ved Tswet t ' s l et t er before the end of
Oct ober - early November. Not e also, t hat while Tswet t re-
ceived t he pri nt ed text of t he Thesis, he did not receive at this
t i me t he actual issue (No. 3) of the Bulletin, which means
t hat it was not yet ready. He acknowl edges recei pt of t hat
onl y i n his December 30, 1896, l et t er (see Par t If. of this se-
ries).
Hi s t or i cal Pa pe r Chr oma t ogr a phi a Vol . 44, No. 9/ 10, Ma y 1997 557
It is most likely that at this time Tswett received a separately
pri nt ed text, serving as his final Ph.D. Thesis to be submitted
to the Faculty. In the Bulletin Tswet t ' s paper has a double pa-
gination: a continuous numbering of the pages of this issue
(pp. 125-206), and page numbers 1-85 in parentheses. At the
same time, t he next article in the same issue of the Bulletin by
Briquet [27] has only the regul ar page numbers (pp.
207-226). Thus, the numbers in parent heses in Tswett' s pa-
per probabl y represent the pagi nat i on of a separat e printing
of the Thesis and this is what Tswett received at this time.
31 This is an interesting remark. We know that later during his
scientific activities, Tswett was heavily engaged in polemics,
sharply at t acki ng everybody who disagreed with him, or had
a different opi ni on - and some of these attacks included ex-
pressions which today, no scientific publication would per-
mit to use. Evi dent l y Tswett had a tendency for such sharp
polemics al ready at the beginning of his scientific career, but
here, he was still rest rai ned by his supervisor.
32 Ivan Porfir'evieh Borodin (1847-1930) was professor of bo-
tany in St. Petersburg, a member of the Imperial Academy of
Sciences, and very active in the field of chlorophylls and
pl ant anatomy. He is often mixed up with his namesake,
Alexander P Borodin (1833-1887), the famous Russian com-
poser, who in his main job, was professor of chemistry at the
Medico-Surgical Academy (University) in St. Petersburg,
and an i nt ernat i onal l y recognized organic chemist.
33 Filip Ovsyanni kov studied at the University of Dorpat/Yu-
r e' ev 36 in the middle of the 19th century (Semen N. Tswett,
Mi khai l ' s fat her studied t here in 1848-1851 and, according
to M. Tswett, t hey were classmates). He became one of the
i mport ant Russian physiologists, co-aut hor of t he first Rus-
sian book on histology. We do not know which university he
was affiliated with (it was not Dorpat / Yure' ev).
34 We do not know who Stapelmohr was.
35 Johannes Christopher Klinge was a graduat e of the Universi-
ty of Dorpat / Yure' ev, 36 a promi nent student of Edmund
Russow, professor of botany at Dor pat between 1874 and
1895.
36 Dorpat is the Swedish/German name of the city of Tartu in
present -day Estonia, seat of one of the oldest universities in
this region. I t was founded in 1632 by the Swedish king Gu-
stavus II Adol phus: at that time the Baltic shores belonged
to Sweden. Af t er the annexation of this area into Russia, the
school was reorgani zed in 1802 as a Russian Imperial univer-
sity, however, t he teaching language remai ned Ger man (let
us not forget t hat the Baltic ar ea was originally settled by the
Ger man knights). The town' s Russian name in this period
was Derpt which was t hen changed in 1893 to Yure'ev, in con-
junction with the Russification of the university, also chan-
ging t he teaching language to Russian. We shall give more in-
format i on about this school in Part III. of our series, in con-
junction with the last letters of Tswett.
37 Evi dent l y Bri quet spent decades to compile this book; how-
ever, it was published posthumously, only nine years after his
death, in January 1940, on the occasion of the 50th anniversa-
ry of t he Societ~ Botanique Suisse. The biography of Briquet
(written by V. Crumi~re-Briquet and E Cavillier) was added
l at er to the book.
Re f e r e nc e s
[1] Ch. Dh~r~, "Michael Tswett - le Cr6ateur de l ' Anal yse
Chromat ographi que par Adsorpt i on: sa Vie, ses Travaux sur
les Pigments Chlorophylliens." Candol l ea (Gen~ve) 10,
23-73 (1943).
[2] T. Robinson, "Michael Tswett." Chymia 6,146--161 (1960).
[3] K. L Sakodynskii, "M. Tswett - His Life." J. Chromatogr. 49,
2-17 (1970).
[4] K. L Sakodynskii, "The Life and Scientific Work of Michael
Tswett." J. Chromatogr. 73, 303-360 (1972).
[5] K. 1. Sakodynskii, K. Chmutov, "M. S. Tswett and Chromato-
graphy." Chromat ographi a 5, 303-360 (1972).
[6] K. 1. Sakodynskii, "New Dat a on M. S. Tswett' s Life and
Work." J. Chromatogr. 220, 1-28 (1981).
[7] K. 1. Sakodynskii, Michael Tswett - Li fe and Work. Carl o
Er ba Strumentazione, Milan, undat ed (1981); 62 pp.
[8] E. M. Senchenkova, Mikhail Semenovich Tswett. Nauka
Publisher, Moscow, 1973; 307 pp.
[9] L. S. Ettre, "Evol ut i on of Liquid Chromat ography: a Histori-
cal Overview." In Cs. Horv(tth (edi t or), Hi gh Performance
Liquid Chromat ography - Advances and Perspectives, Vol.
1, Academi c Press, New York, NY, 1980; pp. 1-74 (Tswett: pp.
22-30).
[10] L. S. Ettre, K. I. Sakodynskii, "M. S. Tswet t and the Discovery
of Chromatography. I: Earl y Work (1899-1903)." Chromat o-
graphia 35, 223-231 (1993).
[11] L.S. Ettre, K. 1. Sakodynskii, "M. S. Tswett and the Discovery
of Chromatography. II: Compl et i on of t he Devel opment of
Chromatography (1903-1910)." Chromat ographi a 35,
329-338 (1993).
9 [12] L. S. Ettrg "M. S. Tswett and the 1918 Nobel Prize in Chemi-
stry." Chromat ographi a 42, 343-351 (1996).
[13] V.G. Berezkin, "Mikhail Semenovich Ts we t t - a Biographi-
cal Sketch." In V. G. Berezkin (compi l er), Chromat ographi c
Adsorpt i on Analysis - Selected Works of M. S. Tswett. Ellis
Horwood, Chichester, 1990; pp. 95-102.
[14] M. Tswett, "Et udes de Physiology Cellulaire." Bull. Lab. bot.
g6n. Univ. Gen~ve 1 (3), 125-206 (1896); Arch. Sci. phys. na-
tur. Gen~ve 4 (2), 228-260, 339-348, 467--486 (1896).
[15] M.S. Tswett, "Fiziko-Khimicheskoe St roeni e Khl orofi l ' nogo
Zerna. Eksperi ment al ' noe i Kri t i cheskoe Issledovanie"
(The Physico-chemical Structure of the Chlorophyll Par-
ticle. Experi ment al and Critical Study). Trudy Obshchestva
Estestvoispytatelei pri Imperat orski Kazanskom Universi-
tet 35 (3), 1-268 (1901).
[16] M. Tswett, "Physikalisch-chemische Studien tiber alas Chlo-
rophyll. Die Adsorpt i on. " Ber. dtsch, botan. Ges. 24, 316-323
(1906).
[17] M. Tswett, "Adsorpt i onsanal yse und di e chromat ographi -
sche Methode. Anwendung auf di e Chemic des Chloro-
phylls." Ber. dtsch, botan. Ges. 24, 384--393 (1906).
[18] M. S. Tswett, Khromofilly v Rast i t el ' nom i Zhi vot nom Mire
(Chlorophylls in t he Plant and Ani mal World). Karbasni kov
Publishers, Warsaw, 1910; 380 pp. (For a partial English
translation, see ref. 13, pp. 35-79).
[19] 1. M. Hais, "Tswett' s Letters to Clapar~de." J. Chromatogr.
440, 509-531 (1988).
[20] 1. M. Hais, "Tswett' s Letters to Cl apar~de on Tropism and
Taxes." J. Chromatogr. 452, 5-16 (1988).
[21] John Briquet, Biographies des Botanistes ~ Gen6ve, de 1500
1931. Published as Vol. 50a of the Bulletin de la Societ6 Bo-
tanique Suisse, Geneva, 1940; 494 pp. Bri quet ' s bi ography is
on pp. 71-93. 37
[22] G. Hesse, H. Weil, Michael Tswet t ' s erst e chromat ographi -
sche Schrift. M. Woelm, Eschwege, 1954; 36 pp. An English
edition of the same text ("Michael Tswet t ' s First Paper on
Chromat ography") was published in 1957.
[23] L M. Hais, "Tswett and the Nobel Prizes." J. Chromatogr. 86,
283-288 (1973).
[24] M. Tswett, "Uber di e Verkn0pfung des ~iusseren und des in-
neren Leptoms der Solanaceen durch markst~indige Lep-
tombt~ndel." Ber. dtsch, botan. Ges. 17, 231-235 (1899).
[25] M. Tswett, "Sur l ' Empl oi des Permanganat es dans la Micro-
technique." Bull. Lab. bot. g6n. Univ. Gen~ve 1 (1), 13-15
(1896); Arch. Sci. phys. natur. Gen~ve 4 (1), 481--483 (1896).
[26] M. Tswett, "Descri pt i on d' un Idi om~t re pour l ' Et ude de
Transpiration V6g6tale." Bull. Lab. bot. g6n. Univ. Gen~ve 1
(2), 210-211 (1896);
[27] Z Briquet, "Le Laborat oi re de Botanique G6n6rale ~ l ' Ex-
position Nat i onal e Suisse de Gen~ve 1896." Bull. Lab. bot.
g6n. Univ. Gen~ve I (3), 207-226 (1896).
Recei ved: Feb 26,1997
Accept ed: Mar 3,1997
5 5 8 Chr omat ogr aphi a Vol. 44, No. 9/10, May 1997 Hi st or i cal Pa pe r