Carl Von Voit

Voit, Carl Von 

Born Oct. 31, 1831, in Amberg; died Jan. 31, 1908, in Munich. German physiologist.

Voit graduated from the University of Munich and in 1860 became a professor at the institution. His major works were on animal metabolism. Using a respiration apparatus that he had designed with M. von Pettenkofer, Voit studied the exchange of gases and the metabolism of nitrogenous substances (proteins) and anitrogenous substances (carbohydrates and fats). Other important works by Voit include his studies on the nitrogen balance and the effect of food rationing and starvation on salt metabolism. Voit’s joint studies with Pettenkofer resulted in the finding that between 85 and 90 percent of the body’s energy is produced by fats and carbohydrates, and only 10 to 15 percent by proteins. Voit was the first to use a systematic approach to nutrition and develop health-oriented nutritional norms. From 1865, Voit and Pettenkofer jointly published the journal Zeitschrift für Biologic

WORKS

Physiologie des allgemeinen Stoffwechsels und der Ernädhrung. Leipzig, 1881. (Handbuch der Physiologie des Gesammt-Stoffwechsels und der Fortpflanzung, edited by L. Hermann, vol. 6, part 1.)

REFERENCE

Frank, O. Carl von Voit, Gedächtnisrede. Munich, 1910.