Leon Marchlewski: one of the precursors of clinical chemistry.

Dynamic progress in the basic sciences such as clinical chemistry exerted a great influence on the development of clinical science in medicine in the 19th century. We should rate Prof. Leon Marchlewski among the group of prominent foreign and Polish scientists working in that period. Marchlewski was born in 1869 in Wloclawek, Poland. He began his chemical studies in Warsaw and then continued at the Zurich Technical University. After having graduated, he began working in the famous Edward Schunk's laboratory in Kersal near Manchester in England. At that time he achieved recognition for his research on the chemical affinity of dyes of the animal and plant world. Later he cooperated in this field with another great scholar Marceli Nencki. In 1900 he returned to Poland, and in 1906 he took charge of the Department of Medical Chemistry at Jagiellonian University. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize twice in 1913 and 1914 for his numerous achievements in the field of clinical chemistry. He took many positions at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, including dean and rector. In 1930-1935 he was a senator of the Republic of Poland. He died in 1946 in Krakow.