Dr. Mehmed Ziya Ülken: the Turkish student of Sir William Ramsay

Feza Günergun

Born in Istanbul, Mehmed Ziya (1870-1951) graduated from the Imperial Medical School in in 1893. When the Ottoman government decided to send four graduates to Paris, Berlin, London and Vienna to study chemistry, Mehmed Ziya was the one who went to London. He enrolled in the University College London where he became a student of Sir William Ramsay. He graduated in 1898. Back to Istanbul, he started to work as a chemist in the laboratories of the Ministry of the Customs. Following the 1909 reformation in the Medical Faculty, he is nominated as professor of Organic Chemistry in the School of Pharmacy of the Darülfünun. He taught in this school for about 25 years. His lecture-notes were published in 1913 and 1924. During his professorship at the School of Pharmacy, he was asked in 1926 to join the commission for the compilation of the Turkish Pharmacopoeia (1930). Mehmed Ziya had to leave the School of Pharmacy at the 1933 University Reformation.

The letters M. Ziya wrote to his family from London are particularly interesting as they reflect the impressions of a young medical graduate in England at the turn of the 20th century. These letters were addressed to his cousin who was keen to learn about England, so that M.Ziya often wrote about the social and daily life in London. The letters written following the summer vacations mostly depicts the English countryside that he greatly enjoyed. He does not, however, details his studies under Sir W.Ramsay.

Key words: Mehmed Ziya Ülken, Hilmi Ziya Ülken, Sir William Ramsay, laboratories of the Ministry of Customs, University College London, Imperial Medical School (Istanbul), Darülfünun, School of Pharmacy (Istanbul), Turkish Codex, pharmaceutical education, organic chemistry, history of chemistry; Anahtar kelimeler: Mehmed Ziya Ülken, Hilmi Ziya Ülken, Sir William Ramsay, Gümrük tahlilhanesi, University College London, Mekteb-i Tıbbiye, Darülfünun, Eczacı Mektebi, Türk kodeksi, eczacılık öğrenimi, organik kimya, kimya tarihi.