Some Jewish Scientists Associated with South Africa by Eric Rosenthal

Some Jewish Scientists Associated With South Africa

by ERIC ROSENTHAL

HAD it not been for the work of a number of Jewish scientists in Europe Bartholomew Diaz might never have discovered the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 nor Vasco da Gama have pioneered the Cape sea-route to India five years later.

To the Jewish community on the Mediterranean island of Majorca goes the honour of having furnished the basic information, thanks to which the Portuguese navigators found their way to these shores. As early as the 13th and 14th centuries, there lived on Majorca Jewish scholars who had not only developed a then unrivalled knowledge of Mathematics, but designed appliances for use in navigation. The late Lionel Isaacs, of Cape Town, who wrote the standard History of the Jews of Majorca records: "Iszac Nafuci and Efraim Bellshon, both mathematicians, were designers of nautical and astronomical instruments". Pedro IV named Nafuci the "Celebrated Jew of Majorca" and preferred them to those of all other makes. In 1359 King Pedro chose Nafuci "to make the clocks and sextants that we desire", and in 1362 he demonstrated his appreciation of Nafuci's talent by "naming him Rabbi of the Aljama of Majorca and never wearied of singing his praises. Mr. Isaacs describes in considerable detail why these astrolabes were regarded as indispensable and how the Infante Juan I forbade some of his Jewish experts to leave the country before they had delivered what he needed from them.

Olfo de Proxida, afterwards Governor of Majorca, ordered a chart that would represent the Straits of Gibraltar, the Atlantic Coast and the "mysterious" oceans, in the most complete form possible. The most celebrated of the cartographers were Abraham Cresques and his son, Yahuda, of a family established for generations in Majorca. For the information of the King of Aragon, Abraham Cresques compiled the celebrated Catalan Atlas, according to its title, "a Map of the World, that is to say, an Image of the World and of the various States of the World and of the Regions that are on the Earth and the different manners of the people that live on it". The work, done in 1381, is still preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Others followed Abraham Cresques until Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal in 1419 invited Yahuda Cresques to his Castle at Sagres where, under the name of Mestre Jacome he, along with other Jewish scholars, notably Abraham Ibn Ezra, Jacob Carsoni and Jacob ben Machir, devised an improved astrolabe, which revolutionised voyaging by sea. Moses, the Mathematician, and Joseph Besvecinho, a Jewish astronomer, were members of the committee which advised King John II, of Portugal, to let Diaz undertake the voyage to the southern end of Africa. Five years later Vasco da Gama even had Jewish pilots with him!

One of the first scientific bodies to be set up in South Africa was the Cape of Good Hope Agricultural Society, which included among its main objects research on farming problems, including the introduction of new crops, the improvement of cultivation and the acquisition of data today gathered by such authorities as the Meteorological Department. Among its principal supporters was Maximilian Thalwitzer, a German Jew, who settled in the Colony in August, 1823. In 1834 he became a leading figure in another important early organisation, The Cape of Good Hope Association for Exploring Central Africa", which sent expeditions into the unknown Transvaal and territories beyond. Thalwitzer was not only responsible, in 1841, for importing Merino sheep, to improve the inferior wool hitherto produced on local farms, but he paid for the immigration of "expert shearers", a practical measure to teach correct techniques in preparing the clip. No less important to the agricultural advancement in the Cape were the Mosenthal Brothers, who not only imported better stock, but in 1857 brought here from Asia Minor the first Angora goat. On this subject Julius Mosenthal, who had deeply studied the whole subject, wrote the first series of technical articles in the "Cape Monthly Magazine".

"Ostriches and Ostrich Farming", issued in 1877 another important treatise, in which Julius Mosenthal shared the authorship with James E. Harting, was for a long time the only text book on the subject.

By this time another Jew had made his mark on the progress of South African science. He was Emil Cohen. Born at Aekjer in Denmark, on October 10, 1842, he studied in Germany at the University of Heidelberg, continuing at Berlin, where in 1869 he gained his degree in Geology "cum laude". Acquiring German nationality, he did extensive work in Prussia and along the Rhine, before establishing himself in Berlin. in 1871 as a "Privat-Dozent". This gave him the right to deliver lectures privately under the auspices of the University. In 1873 the famous house of David Lippert & Co., of Hamburg, who specialised in South African wool and produce, asked Dr. Cohen to report on the newly-discovered Diamond Fields. Travelling to the Cape, he first made observations on local geology, noting the presence of both tin and manganese in the Cape Peninsula, before continuing through the Karroo and Outeniqua Mountains, where he also examined the formations around Knysna. On the River Diggings on the Vaal, Kimberley and beyond he examined, often for the first time, the basic formation of these areas. Dr. A. W. Rogers, former head of the South. African Geological Survey, says of him: "Cohen's work is the starting point of petrographical studies of these rocks, and he holds an honoured place in the role of our Geological pioneers on that account …”

Mention must also be made of Cohen's expedition into the Transvaal, which provided the first accurate geological account of its Eastern districts. Most of his journey, often through dangerous fever country, was carried out on foot, and his report, bearing the modest title "Explanatory Remarks for a Route Map of a Journey to the Gold Fields and from Lydenburg to Delagoa Bay in Eastern South Africa", is a classic of its kind.

To this day, much of the information which Emil Cohen gathered remains of practical use, notably in the development of base mineral deposits.

Apart from his geological discoveries. Cohen also contributed much general information on areas he traversed for instance, on the Tsetse Fly, the effects of which he personally experienced; on Bantu game traps: on local place names and on a host of other themes. From Lourenco Marques to Durban he travelled in a tiny brig of 129 tons. During his 15 months in South Africa Cohen built up an extensive collection of mineral specimens, which he brought back to Europe, and as late as 1896 he produced a valuable paper on the famous Pretoria Salt Pan, to the North of that city.

He was successively Professor of Geology at the Universities of Strassburg, of Heidelberg and Greifswald. His standard work on the South African Diamond Fields appeared in the 1880's and has itself become a valuable piece of Africana. He died in 1905.

A REMARKABLE PERSONALITY

For the first hundred and fifty years of European settlement in South Africa, there is a gap as far as Jewish associations are concerned, because settlement was restricted to Christian Protestants. From the beginning of the 19th century, however, a more liberal policy prevailed, and Jews were to be found among the immigrants who settled here. Among them were some Jewish medical practitioners, Dr. Siegfried Frankel, Dr. T. Braham Kisch, Dr. Abraham Lilienfeld, Dr. Moritz Hoffa, Dr. J. H. Steinau and others. (See Jews in South African Medicine on page 29-Ed.) The first South African born Jew to achieve fame in Science was Dr. Moritz Hoffa's son, Albert, born in Richmond, C.P., in 1859.

Sent overseas as a youth, Albert Hoffa enrolled at the University of Freiburg. where he received his medical degree in 1883. Although he originally intended to return to the Cape, his outstanding ability caused his Professors to urge upon him the need to specialise and to remain in Europe. Following an invitation from the University of Wuerzburg (whose staff, amongst others, included the celebrated Prof. W. C Roentgen, discoverer of X-rays), he joined Professors Schoenborn and Naas, both leaders in the still undeveloped field of bone treatment. Within three years Hoffa set up as a "Privat-Dozent in Surgery", partly because of the difficulty which professing Jews still experienced in securing chairs in German universities. His fame grew and among his most distinguished patients was the Czar of Russia. In association with Professor Metzger and Professor Von Mosengeil, Hoffa conducted experiments on links between the human bone structure and the nervous system, which led to the development of new methods of treating deformities and even paralysis. Within 10 years he was appointed "Professor Extraordinary" at Wuerzburg and his classical Technique of Massage remained a standard work for generations. In 1900 it was followed by Orthopaedics and its Modes of Treatment, and later The Atlas and Fundamentals of the Science of Bandaging, as well as many other important tomes. In 1902 Hoffa became full Professor and head of the Orthopaedic Policlinic at the University of Berlin, with the title of "Geheimer Medizinaleat" (Medical Privy Councillor), the highest title awarded to a surgeon in Imperial Germany. Another famous patient, King Alfonso of Spain, took Professor Hofta on a cruise in his Royal yacht to the Canary Islands and back to Germany, lasting altogether six weeks. (Incidentally the fee was given as R32,000. He also was consulted by the Kaiser's Court, by the German Government on medical legislation and presided over several international conferences. While on a trip down the Rhine Hoffa was stricken with illness, and died on December 31, 1907, at the early age of 48.

A BIOLOGICAL CHEMIST"

Three years after South African Jewry provided the world with this remarkable personality, another destined to achieve scientific fame saw the light in another Karoo village, Burghersdorp. Edwin Goldmann, son of D. N. Goldmann, manager for the commercial firm of Mosenthal Brothers, was born on November 12, 1862. Accompanying his parents when, in 1876, they returned to Germany, Edwin had already. shown unusual promise both in mathematics. and in music at the Albert Academy in Burghersdorp, and it was expected that he would take up one or other of these as a career. After concluding his education at the Gymnasium (Boys' High School) in Breslau, Silesia, he, however, turned to medicine and, by an odd coincidence, he chose the same University of Freiburg as Hoffa. The subject in which he was to specialise, however, was very different, for he decided to become a "Biological Chemist". Beginning with "Microscopic Anatomy under Professor Weigart at Frankfurt, he soon made a reputation for himself, and from there went as a surgical chemist in Freiburg, setting up, like Hoffa, as a "Privat-Dozent in 1891. Before he was 30 Goldmann, already internationally known, made his first noteworthy achievements in the study of paralysis. In 1895 he was appointed Professor and Chief Surgeon at the Deaconesses Hospital at Freiburg. He declined the offer of many high positions in order to work with Dr. Paul Ehrlich, the discoverer of Salvarson, the cure for syphilis. At Ehrlich's celebrated "Institute for Experimental Therapeutics" in Frankfurt, Goldmann became his second in command. One of his most important achievements was the discovery of a method of staining living tissues and thereby rendering their reactions visible under the microscope. In recognition of this achievement, the Royal Society of Medicine in London awarded him a Fellowship. Goldmann was also elected to the Prussian Academy of Science and received more than half-a-dozen honorary degrees. After his marriage he settled for a while in London, but returned to Frankfurt to resume his work on the treatment of cellular abnormalities, specialising in research on cancer. To him goes the honour of having been one of the first researchers in this field. By a tragic irony it was this very disease to which he himself fell a victim in 1913.

Although neither Hoffa nor Goldmann. returned to the country of their birth, they both retained a deep affection for South Africa, and also their knowledge of Afrikaans. During the Boer War, Hoffa worked hard for the relief of victims of the war.

The immigration which followed the discovery of the Witwatersrand brought a number of Jewish scientists to these shores, among them Dr. Jacques Schlesinger, an industrial chemist to whom the South African Republic, in a large measure, owes the establishment of this branch of manufacture. He came from Breslau, in Germany, where he was born in 1861, and took his degree there and at Heidelberg, before settling in the Transvaal in 1889. His first appointment was as Government Analyst to the Kruger Administration, but he cherished other ambitions and in 1892 set up, at Deimore near Germiston, the Transvaal Chemical Company Limited, which proved to be a success and was later followed by the South African Oil and Fat Industries in Durban. In honour of his association with the place and to distinguish himself from others of the same name, he called himself. Schlesinger-Delmore. He died in 1919 at the comparatively early age of 58.

MINERAL RESEARCH

Also associated with chemistry were Dr. Loewy from Germany, and Dr. Alexander Heymann, who came from Russia, both of whom did excellent work in minerals research, now carried on by universities and through official channels. Their laboratories, patronised by leaders of the mining industry, were recognised to be completely reliable in their verdicts. In this connection, mention should be made of an incident in which Cape Jewry's pioneer minister, the Rev. Joel Rabinowitz, was involved. After he retired from the Ministry in Cape Town in 1882, Rabinowitz lost his savings through injudicious investment and decided to take up a new career. Persuading Professor Paul Daniel Hahn, of the Department of Chemistry at the South African College, to teach him the elements of Assaying, he found his way in 1887 to the Witwatersrand, where he began practising in this field. When Johannesburg Jewry realised who the new assayer was, they persuaded him to again accept an appointment as minister! He continued with his religious work until his death in 1902.

Among the early mining engineers of the Witwatersrand was Leopold Kessler, who was born in Germany, where he studied for his profession. Reaching Johannesburg in 1893, he became associated with the opening up of the Crown Mines and of the Kleinfontein Mine. He also wrote two of the earliest technical books on gold mining in South Africa, including one on the valuation of ores. In Jewish life, his renown rests on his personal association with Dr. Theodor Herzl, the founder of the World Zionist Organisation. Kessler played a pioneer role in introducing Zionism to South Africa. He later had a successful mining career in the United States, the West Indies and in North Africa. Kessler died in 1944,

Other aspects of mining were pioneered on the scientific side by a brother of Dr. Edwin Goldmann (already mentioned), Major Charles Sidney Goldmann, who prepared the first Atlas of the Rand as well as the important statistical reference book South African Mining and Finance which appeared in three volumes in 1895 and 1896. Containing details of many gold, diamond, land and finance companies, it preserved information which would now only be secured through governmental channels. Economists and others have used his statistics as the basis of their work on this subject.

One of the first Jewish South Africans to attain distinction as a chemist was Professor Max Rindi, born in King William's Town in 1883, and educated at Dale College, before qualifying in the University of Berlin, as first local chemical engineer. Returning in 1909, he was appointed to the combined chair of Chemistry and Geology at the Grey University College in Bloemfontein, now the University of the Orange. Free State. He made a name for himself in the study of South African poisons and medicinal plants as well as of the country's medicinal springs. In 1929 he was elected President of the South African Chemical Institute and five years later of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science. Professor Rindi died in 1947,

DISTINGUISHED BOTANIST

As a botanist, Professor Selmar Schonland should not be forgotten. He was born in Germany in 1861, came to Grahamstown, where from 1889 to 1910 he was the Director of the Albany Museum, and from 1904 onwards he held the Chair of Botany at Rhodes University College (now Rhodes University). His fame mainly rests on his work on succulents. He married the daughter of another well-known botanist, Professor Peter McOwen, and his son is the famous Sir Basil Schonland, Director of Harwell Atomic Research Institute in Britain. Professor Selmar Schonland passed away in 1940.

One of Johannesburg's distinguished Jewish barristers, the late Bernard A. Ettlinger, was formerly a science student and played a part in a piece of research which helped to make local industrial history. Along with Professor G. H. Stanley, of the South African School of Mines and Technology (now the University of the Witwatersrand), he succeeded in 1919 in isolating the first Uranium in the Rand gold ores. More than a quarter of a century later, its first commercial production began.

WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS

In our own day, the array of Jewish personalities associated with South African science is too large to detail. Many Jews have done outstanding work in the field of medical research (see Jews in South African Medicine, on page 29-Ed.).

The late Dr. Alexander Jokl carried out important research on the eyesight of the Bantu races, and the late Dr. Wulf Sachs pioneered psychological tests in the same community. Professor V. Schrite, of the University of Cape Town, was hailed by Dr. Dwight E. Harker, President of the American College of Cardiology, as one of the world's leading cardiologists. Anthropology has benefitted vastly from the work of Professor P. V. Tobias, head of the Department of Anatomy at the University of the Witwatersrand and President of the Institute for the Study of Man in Africa. The acknowledged authority on fungi in association with timber is Mrs. R. Brown (born Rebecca Lourie), who for many years served as an adviser on this important subject to the Transvaal and Orange Free State Chamber of Mines. Another Jewish South African Anthropologist, Hilda Kuper, has written the standard work on the Swazis. Professor Walter Schaffer of the University of Cape Town widely known for his work on X-ray crystallography.

Many of the most distinguished South African Jewish scientists have made their homes in other countries, including Sir Solly Zuckerman, scientific adviser to the British Government, and Professor I. Schapera, the world's greatest expert on the language of the Bushmen and the Bechuana people, who now lives in America, as do Dr. Clarence Mersky, the haematologist, and Professor Manfred Karnovsky, originally of Johannesburg, and now Professor of Biological Chemistry at Harvard, U.S.A. Professor S. Herbert Frankel, the economist, received a call to Oxford. Dr. Ronald Singer's work in physical anthropology led to his appointment to a University Chair in Chicago, U.S.A.

Among Jewish scientists still practising in South Africa, mention should be made of Professor M. F. Kaplan, one of South Africa's most distinguished civil engineers, who heads his department at the University of Cape Town, Professor S. S. Israelstam, who heads the Department of Chemistry at Witwatersrand University and Dr. Solomon Morris, Cape Town City Engineer, who has revolutionized road building methods in this country.