A History of Fermentation and Enzymes

Sources:
Gillespie, A.L., Tha Natural History of Digestion, p.16, London, 1898.
Sumner and Somer, Chemistry and Method of Enzymes, New York, 1943.

1783 SPALLANZANI noted that meat was liquefied by gastric juice of
     hawks.
1787 FABRONI defined fermentation as a decomposition of one substance
     by another substance.
1810 PLANCHE observed that extracts of plant roots turn guaiacum
     tincture blue.  He called the thermolabile, soluble agent,
     "cyanogen."
1814 KIRCHHOFF observed that a glutinous component of wheat is capable
     of converting starch to sugar and dextriin.
1830 ROBIQUET AND BOUTRON, also CHALARD discovered the hydrolysis
     of amygdalin by bitter almonds.  LIEBIG and  WHOHLER (1837) and
     ROBIQUET (1836) named the enzyme "emulsin."
1831 LEUCHS described the diastatic action of ptyalin.
1833 PAYEN and PERSOZ separated active amylase from malt.
1835 FAURE described sinigrinase.
1836 SCHWANN described pepsin.
1837 BERZELIUS included fermentation under catalytic processes;
1838 BERZELIUS proposes the term "catalysis," meaning a "loosening
     down".
1856 CORVISART described trypsin.
1858 PASTEUR noted that green mould fermented only dextro tartaric
     acid and did not attack levo tartaric acid.
1862 DANIELEWSKI separated pancreatic amylase from trypsin by
     adsorption.
1870 LIEBIG developed a purely chemical theory of enzyme action.
1871 PASTEUR showed that living yeast was necessary for fermentation.
     A distinction was made between "organized ferments" such as
     yeast and lactic acid-producing bacteria, and "unorganized fer-
     ments" such as pepsin and diastase.
1878 KUHNE designated the latter class of substances as "enzymes,"
     which means "in yeast".
1883 DUCLAUX introduced the custom od designating an enzyme by the
     substrate on which its action was first observed and adding the
     suffix, "-ase."
1894 EMIL FISCHER began investigations on which our ideas of enzyme
     specificity are based.
1897 BUCHNER settled the Pasteur-Liebig controversy by the discovery
     that a cell-free yeast extract can cause alcoholic fermentation.
1897 BERTRAND observed that certain enzymes require dialysable sub-
     stances to exert catalytic activity.  He names these substances
     "coenzymes."
1898 CROFT-HILL performed the first enzymatic synthesis, that of iso-
     maltose.
1900 Catalysts of oxidation were considered as enzymes.
1909 SORENSEN pointed out the dependene of enzyme activity on pH.
1926 SUMNER prepared cystalline urease.
1930 NORTHROP crystallized pepsin.
1931 NORTHROP and KUNITZ crystallized trypsin, et sequitur. Many
     other enzymes were crystallized by many other men.