Matthias Jakob Schleiden

Matthias Jakob Schleiden (German: [maˈtiːas ˈjaːkɔp ˈʃlaɪ̯dn̩];[1][2] 1804–1881) was a German botanist and co-founder of cell theory, along with Theodor Schwann and Rudolf Virchow.

Matthias Jakob Schleiden
Matthias Jakob
Born(1804-04-05)5 April 1804
Hamburg, Holy Roman Empire
Died23 June 1881(1881-06-23) (aged 77)
Frankfurt am Main, German Empire
NationalityGerman
Alma materHeidelberg
Known forCell theory
Coining the term 'cytoblast'
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Jena, University of Dorpat
Author abbrev. (botany)Schleid.

Career

Matthias Jakob Schleiden was born in Hamburg on 5 April 1804. His father was the municipal physician of Hamburg. Schleiden pursued legal studies graduating in 1827. He then established a legal practice but after a period of emotional depression and an attempted suicide, he changed professions.

He studied natural science at the University of Göttingen in Göttingen, Germany, but transferred to the University of Berlin in 1835 to study plants. Johann Horkel, Schleiden's uncle, encouraged him to study plant embryology.[3]

He soon developed his love for botany into a full-time pursuit. Schleiden preferred to study plant structure under the microscope. As a professor of botany at the University of Jena, he wrote Contributions to our Knowledge of Phytogenesis (1838), in which he stated that all plants are composed of cells. Thus, Schleiden and Schwann became the first to formulate what was then an informal belief as a principle of biology equal in importance to the atomic theory of chemistry. He also recognized the importance of the cell nucleus, discovered in 1831 by the Scottish botanist Robert Brown,[4] and sensed its connection with cell division.

He became professor of botany at the University of Dorpat in 1863. He concluded that all plant parts are made of cells and that an embryonic plant organism arises from the one cell.

He died in Frankfurt am Main on 23 June 1881.[5]

Die Entwickelung der Meduse ("The Development of the Medusæ"), in Schleiden's Das Meer

Evolution

Schleiden was an early advocate of evolution. In a lecture on the "History of the Vegetable World" published in his book The Plant: A Biography (1848) was a passage that embraced the transmutation of species.[6] He was one of the first German biologists to accept Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. He has been described as a leading proponent of Darwinism in Germany.[7]

Selected publications

References
  1. Dudenredaktion; Kleiner, Stefan; Knöbl, Ralf (2015) [First published 1962]. Das Aussprachewörterbuch [The Pronunciation Dictionary] (in German) (7th ed.). Berlin: Dudenverlag. pp. 481, 587, 764. ISBN 978-3-411-04067-4.
  2. Krech, Eva-Maria; Stock, Eberhard; Hirschfeld, Ursula; Anders, Lutz-Christian (2009-12-23). Deutsches Aussprachewörterbuch (in German). Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110215564.
  3. "Matthias Jacob Schleiden (1804–1881) | The Embryo Project Encyclopedia". embryo.asu.edu. Retrieved 2018-10-16.
  4. Trisha Creekmore. "The Science Channel :: 100 Greatest Discoveries: Biology". Discovery Communications. Archived from the original on 2006-10-24. Retrieved 2006-10-17.
  5. Mathias Jacob Schleiden, Encyclopædia Britannica
  6. "Matthias Jakob Schleiden (1804-1881)". The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.
  7. Glick, Thomas F. (1988). The Comparative Reception of Darwinism. University of Chicago Press. p. 83. ISBN 0-226-29977-5
  8. IPNI.  Schleid.
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