The chemistry prize' for 1938 has been awarded to Professor Richard Kuhn, who is director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research at Heidelberg. He is a pupil of the eminent Jewish chemist Will-stütter and is Austrian by birth. He has done a great deal of work on the synthesis of substances leading to the vitamins. He investigated the properties of carotene, the reddish-yellow substance that gives colour to carrots and fresh butter. Vitamin A is made from carotene in the plant. Through these investigations it became possible to synthesis vitamin A. Kuhn has shown himself a great director of research. He never loses sight of his main aim, which is always of a fundamental nature, and avoids all diversion of secondary importance, however fascinating.
Professor Butenandt, who shares this year's prize for chemistry with Professor Ruzicka, of Zurich, has succeeded in determining the chemical constitution of the female sex hormone. Professor Ruzicka has succeeded in synthesising a male sex hormone, and has discovered the general principle of hormone synthesis. These substances, which have such an important part in the working of the body, are now within sight of manufacture and promise cures for disorders springing from glandular deficiency.
The prize for medicine in 1938 goes io Professor Heymans, of Ghent. He has made great contributions to the knowledge of the nervous control of the circulation of the blood.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.