Making Medicine by Keith Veronese

Author:Keith Veronese [Veronese, Keith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781633887534
Publisher: Prometheus
Published: 2022-04-06T00:00:00+00:00

Tuberculosis and Tempers Flare

In September 1945, Karl Paul Link experienced a recurrence of tuberculosis, a disease that interjected itself throughout his life. This instance of tuberculosis reared its head when Link was away on a canoeing trip with his family, a trip Link was taking to stem exhaustion from overwork. The case was bad enough for Link to be moved from the Wisconsin General Hospital and sent to the Lake View Sanitorium for a six-month stay, where the relaxed mood, fresh air, and cod liver oil supplements were no doubt the epitome of trappings that the hardworking and obsessive Link would despise. Karl did find outlets outside of the three bottles of beer he was allowed each day, however. During his time in the sanitarium, Link became consumed with reading about methods of rodent population control throughout history.13 Link previously visited the possibility of rodent control using dicumarol with his favorite student, the formerly mentioned Wilhelm Schoeffel, but the chemical would never fit the bill when it came to killing rats. The anticoagulant could cause bleeding, yes, but it acted too slowly to ever be an efficient killer.14 The diet of a rat is also high in vitamin K due to the variety of grains and leafy green foods they typically consume, providing a natural antidote to the slow trod of dicumarol poisoning.15

Although their leader would be sidelined for nearly a year, work in his laboratory did not stop, as Link invited Mark Stahmann to keep things going in his absence. Here, we return to the previously mentioned synthesized analogue of dicumarol, analogue #42. Stahmann seized on the molecule, as the group knew it was considerably more potent than dicumarol and as such would work faster in killing rodent populations. Link never thought much of analogue #42, accepting its potency as its failing and going so far as to never even patent the molecule. With twenty-three days left before the possibility of a patent would vanish, Stahmann spearheaded an effort with WARF to patent analogue #42.16

After recovering from tuberculosis, Link ventured back into his lab. Shortly after Link’s return, one of the first public signs of his intense temper arose with Stahmann as his target. As the duo disagreed on an unknown subject, Link argued intensely with Stahmann, directing him to cease all work on anticoagulants. Link then kicked him out of the laboratory, definitively ending their collaboration.17 This animosity extended across decades, as a 1959 article written by Link about the discovery of warfarin leaves out any input on the part of Stahmann.18

His altercation with Stahmann is not the only time Link found himself losing his cool with a colleague. A close friend of Link’s, Robert H. Burris, recounted such an incident in a biographical sketch of his companion and mentor. In this occurrence, Link jealously “throttled” Harry Steenbock, a pioneer at the University of Wisconsin in vitamin D studies, in the men’s bathroom and continued to berate Steenbock in the hallway as a small group looked on.19

Despite Link’s

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