Up for auction "Abbott Labs" Ernest H. Volwiler Hand Signed 3X5 Card.
ES-3269
Ernest Henry Volwiler (August
22, 1893 – October 3, 1992) was an American chemist. He spent his career
at Abbott Laboratories working
his way from staff chemist to CEO. He was a pioneer in the field of anesthetic pharmacology, assisting in the development of two breakthrough
drugs, Nembutal and Pentothal. Volwiler also helped Abbott Laboratories to achieve
commercial success for its pharmaceutical products including the
commercialization of penicillin and sulfa drugs during World War II.
Ernest
Henry Volwiler was born on August 22, 1893 to Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Volwiler
of Hamilton, Ohio,
German-speaking immigrants. They lived on a farm near the intersection of
Layhigh and Robinson roads in Morgan
Township, Butler County, Ohio. As a child, Volwiler and his
brother Albert Tangeman Volwiler attended a one-room schoolhouse. Later, Ernest
attended Morgan Twp. High School in Okeana, Ohio, graduating in 1909.[
He then spent a year teaching in a country school, to earn money for
university.
Volwiler
received a bachelor's degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1914. He became interested in chemistry
after attending a lecture by John C. Hessler of James Milliken University,
Decatur, Ill. He went on to receive a master's degree and Ph.D. in chemistry
from the University
of Illinois in 1916 and 1918.[1] Volwiler was Roger Adams' first doctoral student. Starting in 1915 as a summer
student, Volwiler worked with Clarence
Derick's Organic Chemical Manufactures unit at the University of
Illinois, learning to make and sell chemicals that had previously been imported
from Germany. From 1916 to 1917 Volwiler served as Chemist-in-Charge of Organic
Chemical Manufactures. From 1917 to 1918 he was a Fellow in Chemistry at the
University of Illinois. Recruited by Wallace C.
Abbott, Volwiler joined Abbott Laboratories as a research chemist in
1918. Volwiler became Chief Chemist in
1920 and Director of Research in 1930. From 1933 to 1946 he acted as Vice
President of Research and Development. From 1946 to 1950 he became Executive
Vice President of Abbott Laboratories, and from 1950 to 1958, President and
General Manager. In 1958 he became Chairman of the Board, retiring in 1961. Abbott
Laboratories produced significant financial returns during his tenure as CEO. His
first job at Abbott Laboratories was to recreate the German sedative Veronal,
for use in World War I hospitals.
Volwiler was able to meet the demand, successfully synthesizing Barbital and overseeing its production in spite of
shortages of time, people and equipment. Volwiler was a pioneer in the field
of anesthetic pharmacology, assisting in the development of two breakthrough
drugs, the barbiturates Nembutal and Pentothal. Nembutal, developed by
Ernest H. Volwiler and Donalee L. Tabern of Abbott Laboratories in 1930, was a
novel barbiturate that could induce sleep within 20 minutes. It had the
advantage of rarely producing hangovers or other side effects. An oral-hypnotic
barbiturate, Nembutal has a long narcotic duration, with attendant risk of
abuse. In 1934, Volwiler and Tabern synthesized the first intravenous
general anesthetic, Sodium thiopental, in 1934. In the mid 1930s, Volwiler and
Tabern spent three years screening over 200 candidate compounds in search of a
substance which could be injected directly into the blood stream to produce
unconsciousness. They eventually discovered that
5-ethyl-5-(1-methylbutyl)-2-thiobarbituric acid, a sulfur-bearing analogue of
Nembutal, was fast, effective and lacked side effects such as twitching or
delirium. Sodium thiopental was first used in humans on 8 March 1934
by Ralph M. Waters in an
investigation of its properties, which were short-term anesthesia and
surprisingly little analgesia. Three months later, John Silas Lundy started clinical trials of thiopental at
the Mayo Clinic at the request of Abbott Laboratories. Volwiler
and Tabern were awarded U.S. Patent No. 2,153,729 in 1939 for the discovery of
thiopental. Pentothal's discovery revolutionized intravenous anesthesia. The
anesthetic can quickly put patients to sleep for a short period of time to
relieve the discomfort of surgery or other medical procedures, or to allow
physicians to administer longer lasting, inhalable anesthetics. As well as
being easy to use it is relatively safe to handle: fireproof, non-explosive and
easily transported. The dangers of cardio-depressant effects and overdose due
to repeated use were soon discovered. During World War II, 78% of patients
received Pentothal anaesthetic, with a mortality rate of 0.018%. Pentothal has
sometimes been referred to as a "truth serum", because it can cause
people to talk freely. For a time after World War II Pentothal was valued
in some forms of psychotherapy for
this disinhibiting effect. There is no guarantee, however, that what is
reported is reliable, and such results have been rejected as evidence in court.