["A change in medical thinking?" or "over-eager literary activity?" August Bier, homeopathy and the Nobel Prize 1906-1936]

Abstract

This essay explains the nomination and evaluation procedure for the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Its research is based on original files and on the example of August Karl Gustav Bier (1861-1949). It discusses the minutes of the Nobel Committee for physiology or medicine, which are kept in the Nobel Archives, as well as the unusually high number of nominations of August Bier and the nominations submitted by him; it also describes the reasons why August Bier, in the end, never received the Nobel Prize. The essay focuses mainly on the reception of Bier's homeopathic theses by the Nobel Prize Committee and his nominators.