Matthias schleiden born

Matthias Jakob Schleiden

German botanist

"Schleid." redirects here. For the municipality in Germany, see Schleid.

Matthias Jakob Schleiden (German:[maˈtiːasˈjaːkɔpˈʃlaɪdn̩];[1][2] 5 April – 23 June ) was a German botanist and co-founder of cell theory, along with Theodor Schwann and Rudolf Virchow. He published some poems and non-scientific work under the pseudonym Ernst.[3]

Career

Matthias Jakob Schleiden was born in Hamburg. on 5 April His father was the municipal physician of Hamburg. Schleiden pursued legal studies graduating in He then established a legal practice but after a period of emotional depression and attempted suicide, he changed professions. The suicide attempt left a prominent scar across his forehead.[4]

He studied natural science at the University of Göttingen in Göttingen, Germany, but transferred to the University of Berlin in to study plants. Johann Horkel, Schleiden's uncle, encouraged him to study plant embryology.[5]

He soon developed his love for botany and cats 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 (), 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 by the Scottish botanist Robert Brown,[6] and sensed its connection with cell division. In , the two scientists M. J. Schleiden and Theodore Schwann formulated a theory about cellular structure which stated, 'All the living organisms are made up of cells and the cell is the fundamental component of living organismus”. In Rudolf Virchow stated that all cells are formed from pre-existing cells.

Although Schleiden was not Jewish nor a historian by profession, he was noted for his defense of Judaism and against antisemitism, and wrote two works, Die Bedeutung der Juden für die Erhaltung und Wiederbelebung der Wissenschaften im Mittelalter () and Die Romantik des Martyriums bei den Juden im Mittelalter (), published in English as The Sciences among the Jews Before and During the Middle Ages and The Importance of the Jews for the Preservation and Revival of Learning during the Middle Ages. [7]

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

He died in Frankfurt am Main on 23 June [8]

Evolution

Schleiden was an early advocate of evolution. In a lecture on the "History of the Vegetable World" published in his book Die Pflanze und ihr Leben ("The Plant: A Biography") () was a passage that embraced the transmutation of species.[9] 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.[10]

With Die Pflanze und ihr Leben, reprinted six times by , and his Studien: Populäre Vorträge ("Studies: Popular Lectures"), both written in a way that was accessible to lay readers, Schleiden contributed to creating a momentum for popularizing science in Germany.[11]

Schleiden’s popular writings included two volumes of poetry which appeared under the pseudonym “Ernst” in and [3] American composer Harriet P. Sawyer set one of his poems to music with her song “Die ersten Tropfen fallen.”[12]

Selected publications

The standard author abbreviationSchleid. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[13]

References

  1. ^Dudenredaktion; Kleiner, Stefan; Knöbl, Ralf () [First published ]. Das Aussprachewörterbuch [The Pronunciation Dictionary] (in German) (7th&#;ed.). Berlin: Dudenverlag. pp.&#;, , ISBN&#;.
  2. ^Krech, Eva-Maria; Stock, Eberhard; Hirschfeld, Ursula; Anders, Lutz-Christian (). Deutsches Aussprachewörterbuch (in German). Walter de Gruyter. ISBN&#;. Archived from the original on Retrieved
  3. ^ abCharpa, Ulrich (). "Matthias Jakob Schleiden (): The History of Jewish Interest in Science and the Methodology of Microscopic Botany". Aleph. 3 (3): – doi/ALE ISSN&#; JSTOR&#; S2CID&#; Archived from the original on Retrieved
  4. ^Mukherjee, Siddhartha (). The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human (1&#;ed.). USA: Scribner. ISBN&#;. Archived from the original on Retrieved
  5. ^"Matthias Jacob Schleiden (–) | The Embryo Project Encyclopedia". . Archived from the original on Retrieved
  6. ^Trisha Creekmore. "The Science Channel&#;:: Greatest Discoveries: Biology". Discovery Communications. Archived from the original on Retrieved
  7. ^Charpa, Ulrich (). "Matthias Jakob Schleiden (): The History of Jewish Interest in Science and the Methodology of Microscopic Botany". Aleph. 3 (3): – doi/ALE ISSN&#; JSTOR&#;
  8. ^Mathias Jacob SchleidenArchived at the Wayback Machine, Encyclopædia Britannica
  9. ^"Matthias Jakob Schleiden ()"Archived at the Wayback Machine. The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.
  10. ^Glick, Thomas F. (). The Comparative Reception of Darwinism. University of Chicago Press. p. ISBN&#;
  11. ^Andreas W. Daum, Wissenschaftspopularisierung im Jahrhundert: Bürgerliche Kultur, naturwissenschaftliche Bildung und die deutsche Öffentlichkeit, –. Munich: Oldenbourg, , pp. , , , ,
  12. ^"Harriet Priscilla Sawyer Song Texts | LiederNet". . Archived from the original on Retrieved
  13. ^International Plant Names Index. &#;Schleid.

External links