1623-1688

German doctor who was an early pioneer in the use of opium, whose main active ingredient is morphine, as an analgesic. Together with Johann Major, Elsholtz gave an opium solution intravenously to a dog and noted afterwards that the dog did not react to the prick of a pin. In 1676 Elsholtz observed the shimmering thermoluminescence of heated fluorspar. He died in Berlin in 1688.