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Matthias Jakob Schleiden, German botanist who, with Theodor Schwann, was a cofounder of the cell theory. Schleiden 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. Learn about Schleiden’s life and career.
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- Who was Matthias Jacob Schleiden?
Matthias Jacob Schleiden was a German botanist who, with...
- Wilhelm Pfeffer
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.
Matthias Jacob Schleiden studied microscopic plant structures. In his studies, he observed that the different parts of the plant organism are composed of cells or derivatives of cells. Specifically, he observed that “the lower plants all consist of one cell, while the higher ones are composed of (many) individual cells.”.
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Matthias Jacob Schleiden helped develop the cell theory in Germany during the nineteenth century. Schleiden studied cells as the common element among all plants and animals. Schleiden contributed to the field of embryology through his introduction of the Zeiss microscope lens and via his work with cells and cell theory as an organizing principle of...
Schleiden was born in Hamburg, Germany, on 5 April 1804. His father was the municipal physician of Hamburg. Schleiden pursued legal studies at the University of Heidelberg in Heidelberg, Germany, and he graduated in 1827. He established a legal practice in Hamburg, but after a period of emotional depression and an attempted suicide, he changed prof...
In Berlin, Schleiden worked in the laboratory of zoologist Johannes Müller, where he met Theodor Schwann. Both Schleiden and Schwann studied cell theory and phytogenesis, the origin and developmental history of plants. They aimed to find a unit of organisms common to the animal and plant kingdoms. They began a collaboration, and later scientists of...
Schleiden again transferred, this time to the University of Jena in Jena, Germany, where he received his doctorate in botany in 1839. He then worked for the university as a professor in botany and studied a range of topics in which to lecture and publish. In 1844, Schleiden married his first wife, Bertha Mirus, with whom he had three daughters. Mir...
Schleiden entered a debate with Giovan Amici, who lived in Italy, in 1842. At the Fourth Italian Scientific Congress in Padua, Italy, Amici presented his observations \"Sulla fecondazione delle piante Cucurbita Pepo\" (On the fertilization of plants Cucurbita Pepo). Schleiden agreed with Amici that the growth of the pollen tube in plants went throu...
Schleiden said that when the cytoblast, which later scientists termed the nucleus, reaches its final size, a transparent vesicle forms around it, creating the new cell which then proceeds to crystallize within a formative liquid. He said that cells can only form in a liquid containing sugar, gum, and mucus, or the cytoblastema. The mucous portion c...
Many scientists worked on the crystallization of cells before Schleiden. The claim that cells crystallized inside a primary substance traced back at least to Nehemiah Grew, who studied plants in England during the seventeenth century. Other who studied crystallization in the nineteenth century included François-Vincent Raspail and Charles Robin in ...
Schleiden's research on cytogenesis and the free genesis of cells sparked many scientific debates and controversies. Many of these controversies started with Schleiden's criticism of botanists from the early nineteenth century. Schleiden declared himself an enemy of all philosophical speculation, especially speculative botany, because he argued tha...
Schleiden gave many lectures, often for large audiences, some of which were published, such as 1850's Die Pflanze und ihr Leben (The Plant and Its Life) and 1857's Studien (Studies). In 1850 he became a full professor of botany at the University of Jena. Schleiden left Jena in 1863 to become a professor of anthropology at the University of Dorpat, ...
By the time he had recovered from his injury and depression, Schleiden decided to give up law and study natural science. He earned doctorates in medicine and philosophy and was appointed professor of botany at the University of Jena.
Matthias Jacob Schleiden was a German botanist who, with Theodor Schwann, cofounded the cell theory. In 1838 Schleiden defined the cell as the basic unit of plant structure, and a year later Schwann defined the cell as the basic unit of animal structure.
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What did Matthias Jacob Schleiden study?
What did Matthias Jacob Schleiden say about cell theory?
Who was Matthias Jakob Schleiden?
What did Schleiden and Schwann study?
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. He soon developed his love for botany and cats into a full-time pursuit.
