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SCHWANN, THEODOR (1810-1882)

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 388 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SCHWANN, THEODOR (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. 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: SCHWANN, THEODOR (1810-1882)

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