he was the first to propose a relation between immune system to infections and active oxygen in the blood cells. In his last work Traube proposed disinfecting drinking water with calcium chloride. This technique became very important. By 1914 the method was used in more than 100 cities in America. It was reintroduced to Germany after World War II via the American occupation. Biological oxidation Traube developed a homogeneous concept of the critical significance of cellular respiration for the generation of heat, formation and maintenance of structures and organ function. From his point of view biological oxidation takes place not only in the blood but in all tissues. Traube's theory of muscular metabolism is significant because it showed the close relationship between respiration, muscular activity and heat generation, thus contributed to the refutation of Liebig's theory of nutrients. The substrates for creating muscle power were thus primarily nitrogen-free compounds and not just proteins. To investigate the process of enzymatic oxygen activation in organisms Traube did experimental research into inorganic autoxidation and oxygen activation. He thus demonstrated the role of water as active partner in slow oxidations and showed the intermediate character of hydrogen peroxide generation. Accolades and appreciations In consistently applying chemistry to physiology, Traube was a follower of Liebig and peer of Hoppe-Seyler. Traube produced 51 publications, lectured and occasionally taught. His significant pupils were Guido Bodländer and his own son Wilhelm Traube. His biochemical concepts influenced later research. In his time he was especially noted for his clarification of the role of nutrients in metabolism and his work with semipermeable membranes. The University of Halle-Wittenberg conferred an honorary doctorate of medicine on Traube in 1867 and he was elected a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin in 1886. Louis Pasteur called Traube an excellent physiologist and professor; extensive appreciations were written by August Wilhelm von Hofmann, Hermann Emil Fischer and Ferdinand Cohn. In 1875 Charles Darwin had asked Traube to send him his work on cell formation. Philosophers, too, showed great interest in his results. In the 1870s Karl Marx met Traube in Karlsbad to learn more about inorganic cells because Friedrich Engels was working on the relation between organic and inorganic nature, i.e., the dialectics of nature in Anti-Dühring, and Traube's artificial cells served as models of living plant cells. When the young Robert Koch in 1876 presented his discovery of bacillus anthracis