FISCHER, NICOLAUS WOLFGANG:
Physician and chemist; born Jan. 15, 1782, in Great Meseritz, Moravia; died Aug. 19, 1850, in Breslau. He studied at the universities of Vienna, Prague, Breslau, and Berlin. Having obtained his doctor's degree at Erfurt Oct. 10, 1806, he settled there in the following year to practise medicine.
In 1813 he was appointed assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Breslau, and a year later was made professor, and at the same time was put in charge of the Institute of Chemistry. He filled this office until his death.
Besides a large number of chemical disquisitions which appeared in the "Journal für Chemie und Physik," Schweigger's "Annalen für Chemie," "Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin" (Physische Classe), "Annalen der Physik und Chemie," and other publications, Fischer wrote; "Medicaminum Mercurialium Præcipua Classificatio; Adjectis Nonnullis de Eorum Præparatione Chem. -Pharmac. Annotationibus," 1806; "De Modis Arsenia Detegendi," 1812; "Ueber die Wirkung des Lichts auf das Hornsilber," 1814; "Ueber die Chemischen Reagentien," 1816; "Chemische Untersuchungen der Heilquellen zu Salzbrunn," 1821; "Ueber die Natur der Metallreduction auf Nassem Wege," 1828; "Das Verhältniss der Chemischen Verwandtschaft zur Galvanischen Elektricität, in Versuchen Dargestellt," 1830; and "Systematischer Lehrbegriff der Chemie, in Tabellen Dargestellt," 1838. In 1815 Fischer and his entire family embraced Christianity, and from that time he became an ardent supporter of the Christian mission which then flourished in the Jewish section of Breslau.
- J. C. Poggendorff, Biog.-Literarisches Handwörterbuch zur Gesch. der Exacten Wissenschaften, vol. i., Leipsic, 1863;
- J. F. A. de le Roi, Gesch. der Evangelischen Judenmission, p. 240, ib. 1899;
- Constant von Wurzbach, Biog. Lex. des Kaiserthums Oesterreich, iv., Vienna, 1858.
