Theodor Schwann
Biologist · 1810-1882 · Biology, stage 3: Meet the biologists
Extended cell theory from plants to animals and named the process of metabolism.
Overview
Schwann was a German physiologist who took Matthias Schleiden's claim that plants are built from cells and showed that animal tissues, including nerve and muscle, are built the same way. That extension turned a botanical observation into a general statement about life and gave physiology a common unit to work in. He also isolated pepsin, the first enzyme identified from animal tissue, and demonstrated that fermentation depends on living yeast rather than on chemical decay, a result later confirmed and generalised by Pasteur. His Microscopical Researches is readable in translation but dense; most readers are better served by a short history of cell theory first, then Schwann's own summary chapters.
Where to start reading
Microscopical Researches into the Accordance in the Structure and Growth of Animals and Plants 1839
The book that stated cell theory in general form, arguing from tissue after tissue that animals as well as plants are aggregates of cells.
Part of
Sources
- Theodor Schwann Wikipedia
- Cell theory Wikipedia
- The Cell: A Molecular Approach NCBI Bookshelf
