in February 1844 and by 1845 had published 13 papers. In 1846 he was appointed to the medical faculty as a lecturer in physiological and animal chemistry. Between 1845 and 1850, he described novel methods for isolating and identifying components of animal fluids and human urine. This work resulted in 26 publications. By 1851 Heintz took a position at the University of Halle, where remained until his death in 1880.

At Halle, Heintz turned his attention to the chemistry of animal fats which he referred to as the “fat kingdom”. The basic work in fat chemistry had been completed with the publication of Chevreuls “Chemical Research on the fatty bodies of animal origin.” (1823). When Heintz entered the field, other had identified many new fats and fatty acids allHeintz used an especially constructed thermometer allowing melting points to be measured within 1/20th degC. He was apparently the first to describe fat melting points in detail and it would appear that the capillary tube method used by him is very similar to the official AOCS method.

Notes and further reading

Much of the material given here can be found in Wilhelm Heintz (1817-1880) and the chemistry of the fatty acids. Peter Ramsberg, Bull.Hist.Chem. 38 pp 19-28 (2013). The article is well written and informative.

Chevreul’s classic work on the nature of fats and oils is summarized in a recent translation by Dr. Albert Dijkstra (A Chemical study of oils and fats of animal origin) and is available from AOCS Press. A full biography of Chevreul was published by Albert Costa,