Abstract
Here we present a translation from German to English of a scientific paper from 1902 titled ‘On the knowledge of the absorption of simple, in particular stereoisomeric sugars in the small intestine’ published in the journal Pflugers Arch. 90:389–404. We provide the translation because this work represents an important contribution to the historical research record focusing on cell membrane function. We have included a brief foreword highlighting some of the context of the work both scientifically and historically.