Marmorek, Alexander

Austrian physician; born at Mielnica, Galicia, Feb. 19, 1865; educated at a gymnasium and at the University of Vienna (M.D. 1887). He removed to Paris, where he became a pupil, later an assistant, at the Pasteur Institute. He is the author of "Versuch einer Theorie der Septischen Krankheiten," Vienna, 1894.

In 1900 Marmorek claimed to have discovered an antidote (antistreptococcus serum) against puerperal fever; but his remedy did not prove efficacious. It is still, however, used at the Pasteur Institute. Again, in 1903 he appeared before the French Academy of Medicine in Paris, claiming to have found an antidote for tuberculosis. He stated that the tuberculin discovered by Koch was not the toxin (or poison) of the tubercle-bacillus, but a product which only stimulates the cells to produce the toxin; that the real toxin had been found by him (Marmorek), and that he had discovered also the antituberculosis vaccine. He claimed good results for his remedy, which he had sent to Duyen of Paris and Von Mikulicz of Breslau. The first-named expressed himself in favor of Marmorek's antidote; the other condemned it.

Marmorek is known also as an ardent Zionist. As a student he had been a member of the Ḳadimah, the first students' Zionist society of Vienna; he is therefore one of the earliest of the modern Zionists. He was made an officer of the first Zionist Congress, and has held office in each succeeding one. He is at the head of the French Zionist Federation and is the founder of the Jewish Popular University in Paris. He has taken an active part also in communal work in Paris, and was one of the founders of the "Echo Sioniste," the Zionist monthly published in Paris. Marmorek has been decorated with the Legion d'Honneur

Bibliography:

  * The medical journals for Nov. and Dec., 1903;
  * Le Petit Journal (Paris), Dec. 2, 1903.



S. F. T. H.