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THEODOR SCHWANN (1810-1882)

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 388 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THEODOR See also:

SCHWANN (1810-1882)  , See also:German physiologist, was See also:born at See also:Neuss in Rhenish See also:Prussia on the 7th of See also:December 181o . His See also:father was a See also:man of See also:great See also:mechanical See also:talent; at first a See also:goldsmith, he afterwards founded an important See also:printing See also:establishment . See also:Schwann inherited his father's tastes, and the leisure of his boyhood was largely spent in constructing little See also:machines of all kinds . He studied at the See also:Jesuits' See also:college in See also:Cologne and afterwards at See also:Bonn, where he met Johannes See also:Muller, in whose physiological experiments he soon came to assist . He next went to See also:Wurzburg to continue his medical studies, and thence to See also:Berlin to See also:graduate in 1834 . Here he again met Muller, who had been meanwhile translated to Berlin, and who finally persuaded him to enter on a scientific career and appointed him assistant at the anatomical museum . Schwann in 1838 was called to the See also:chair of See also:anatomy at the See also:Roman See also:Catholic university of See also:Louvain, where he remained nine years . In 1847 he went as See also:professor to See also:Liege, where he remained till his See also:death on the 1th of See also:January 1882 . He was of a peculiarly See also:gentle and amiable See also:character, and remained a devout Catholic throughout his See also:life . It was during the four years spent under the See also:influence of Muller at Berlin that all Schwann's really valuable See also:work was done . Muller was at this See also:time preparing his great See also:book on See also:physiology, and Schwann assisted him in the experimental work required . His See also:attention being thus directed to the See also:nervous and See also:muscular tissues, besides making such histological discoveries as that of the envelope of the See also:nerve-See also:fibres which now bears his name, he initiated those researches in muscular contractility since so elaborately worked out by Du Bois Reymond and others .

He was thus the first of See also:

Miller's pupils who See also:broke with the traditional vitalism and worked towards a physico-chemical explanation of life . Muller also directed his attention to the See also:process of digestion, which Schwann showed to depend essentially on the presence of a ferment called by him See also:pepsin . Schwann also examined the question of spontaneous See also:generation, which he greatly aided to disprove, and in the course of his experiments discovered the organic nature of yeast . In fact the whole germ theory of See also:Pasteur, as well as its antiseptic applications by See also:Lister, is traceable to his influence . Once when he was dining with See also:Schleiden in 1837, the conversation turned on the nuclei of See also:vegetable cells . Schwann remembered having seen similar structures in the cells of the notochord (as had been shown by Muller) and instantly realized the importance of connecting the two phenomena . The resemblance was confirmed without delay by both observers, and the results soon appeared in his famous Microscopic Investigations on the Accordance in the Structure and Growth of See also:Plants and Animals (Berlin, 1839; trans . See also:Sydenham Society, 1847) . The See also:cell theory was thus definitely constituted . In the course of his verifications of the cell theory, in which he traversed the whole See also:field of See also:histology, he provedthe cellular origin and development of the most highly differentiated tissues, nails, feathers, enamels, &c . His generalization became the See also:foundation of See also:modern histology, and in the hands of See also:Rudolf See also:Virchow (whose cellular See also:pathology was an inevitable See also:deduction from Schwann) afforded the means of placing modern pathology on a truly scientific basis . An excellent See also:account of Schwann's life and work is that by See also:Leon Fr6dericq (Liege, 1884) .

End of Article: THEODOR SCHWANN (1810-1882)
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