The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Pfaff, Christian Heinrich

PFAFF, pfäf, Christian Heinrich, German phyiscian and physicist: b. Stuttgart, 2 March 1772; d. Kiel, Holstein, 24 April 1852. His interest in electricity was first awakened by the celebrated experimenter Gross. He was graduated as a physician at Stuttgart in 1793 and then went to Göttingen, where he published the results of his galvanic inquiries in ‘Ueber thierische Electricität und Reizbarkeit.’ In 1797 he became an extraordinary professor at Kiel and in 1801 was made professor of chemistry, physics and medicine there with rank at the same time as a member of the medical faculty. He then directed his attention particularly to pharmaceutical chemistry, and was thus led to the composition of his most important work, ‘System der Materia Medica nach chemischen Principien’ (1808-24). Among other writings of his are ‘Handbuch der analytischen Chemie’ (1824-25); ‘Ueber und gegen den thierichen Magnetismus’ (1807); ‘Der Electromagnetismus’ (1824); ‘Parallele der chemischen Theorie und der voltaischen Contacttheorie der galvanischen Kette’ (1845).