The appearance in the scientific community in the middle of the 19th century of the cell theory, the authors of which were Schleiden and Schwann, became a real revolution in the development of all areas of biology without exception.
Another creator of cell theory, R. Virchow, is known for this aphorism: “Schwann stood on the shoulders of Schleiden.” The great Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, whose name is known to everyone, compared science to a construction site, where everything is interconnected and everything has its own preceding events. The “construction” of the cell theory is shared with the official authors by all predecessor scientists. On whose shoulders did they stand?
Start
The creation of the cell theory began about 350 years ago. The famous English scientist Robert Hooke invented a device in 1665, which he called a microscope. The toy interested him so much that he looked at everything that came to hand. The result of his passion was the book “Micrography”. Hooke wrote it, after which he began to enthusiastically engage in completely different research, and completely forgot about his microscope.
But it was the entry in his book No. 18 (he described the cells of an ordinary cork and called them cells) that glorified him as the discoverer of the cellular structure of all living things.
Robert Hooke abandoned his passion for the microscope, but it was picked up by world-famous scientists - Marcello Malpighi, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Caspar Friedrich Wolf, Jan Evangelista Purkinje, Robert Brown and others.
An improved model of the microscope allows the Frenchman Charles-François Brissot de Mirbel to conclude that all plants are formed from specialized cells united in tissues. And Jean Baptiste Lamarck transfers the idea of tissue structure to organisms of animal origin.
Matthias Schleiden
Matthias Jakob Schleiden (1804-1881), at the age of twenty-six, delighted his family by giving up his promising law practice and going to study at the medical faculty of the same Gettin University, where he received his education as a lawyer.
He did this for good reason - at the age of 35, Matthias Schleiden became a professor at the University of Jena, studying botany and plant physiology. Its goal is to find out how new cells are formed. In his works, he correctly identified the primacy of the nucleus in the formation of new cells, but was mistaken about the mechanisms of the process and the lack of similarity between plant and animal cells.
After five years of work, he writes an article entitled “On the Question of Plants,” proving the cellular structure of all parts of plants. The reviewer of the article, by the way, was the physiologist Johann Muller, whose assistant at that time was the future author of the cell theory T. Schwann.
Theodor Schwann
Schwann (1810-1882) dreamed of becoming a priest since childhood. He went to the University of Bonn to study as a philosopher, choosing this specialization as closer to his future career as a clergyman.
But youthful interest in natural sciences won out. Theodor Schwann graduated from the university at the Faculty of Medicine. For only five years he worked as an assistant to the physiologist I. Muller, but over these years he made so many discoveries that would be enough for several scientists. Suffice it to say that he discovered pepsin in gastric juice, and a specific fiber sheath in nerve endings. The novice researcher rediscovered yeast fungi and proved their involvement in fermentation processes.
Friends and associates
The scientific world of Germany at that time could not help but introduce future comrades. Both recalled meeting over lunch in a small restaurant in 1838. Schleiden and Schwann casually discussed current affairs. Schleiden talked about the presence of nuclei in plant cells and his way of viewing the cells using microscopic equipment.
This message turned the lives of both of them upside down - Schleiden and Schwann became friends and communicated a lot. After only a year of persistent study of animal cells, the work “Microscopic Studies on the Correspondence in the Structure and Growth of Animals and Plants” (1839) appeared. Theodor Schwann was able to see the similarities in the structure and development of elementary units of animal and plant origin. And the main conclusion is that life is in a cage!
It was this postulate that entered biology as the cell theory of Schleiden and Schwann.
Revolution in biology
Like the foundation of the building, the discovery of the cell theory of Schleiden and Schwann launched a chain reaction of discoveries. Histology, cytology, pathological anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, embryology, evolutionary studies - all sciences began to actively develop, discovering new mechanisms of interaction in a living system. The German, like Schleiden and Schwann, the founder of pathanatomy Rudolf Virchow in 1858 supplemented the theory with the proposition “Every cell is a cell” (in Latin - Omnis cellula e cellula).
And the Russian I. Chistyakov (1874) and the Pole E. Strazburger (1875) discovered mitotic (vegetative, not sexual) cell division.
From all these discoveries, like bricks, the cellular theory of Schwann and Schleiden is built, the main postulates of which remain unchanged today.
Modern cell theory
Although in the one hundred and eighty years since Schleiden and Schwann formulated their postulates, experimental and theoretical knowledge has been obtained that has significantly expanded the boundaries of knowledge about the cell, the main provisions of the theory are almost the same and are briefly as follows:
- The unit of all living things is the cell - self-renewing, self-regulating and self-reproducing (the thesis of the unity of origin of all living organisms).
- All organisms on the planet have a similar cell structure, chemical composition and life processes (the thesis of homology, the unity of origin of all life on the planet).
- A cell is a system of biopolymers capable of reproducing what is like from what is not like itself (the thesis of the main property of life as a determining factor).
- Self-reproduction of cells is carried out by dividing the mother (thesis of heredity and continuity).
- Multicellular organisms are formed from specialized cells that form tissues, organs, and systems that are in close interconnection and mutual regulation (the thesis of an organism as a system with close intercellular, humoral, and nervous relationships).
- Cells are morphologically and functionally diverse and acquire specialization in multicellular organisms as a result of differentiation (the thesis of totipotency, the genetic equivalence of cells of a multicellular system).
End of "construction"
Years passed, an electron microscope appeared in the arsenal of biologists, researchers studied in detail the mitosis and meiosis of cells, the structure and role of organelles, the biochemistry of the cell, and even deciphered the DNA molecule. German scientists Schleiden and Schwann, together with their theory, became the support and foundation for subsequent discoveries. But we can definitely say that the system of knowledge about the cell is not yet complete. And every new discovery, brick by brick, advances humanity towards understanding the organization of all life on our planet.
(Schwann Theodor, 1810-1882) - German anatomist, histologist and physiologist, Doctor of Medicine (1834), creator of the cell theory. From 1829 he studied natural sciences and medicine in Bonn, Würzburg and Berlin. In 1833 he graduated from the medical faculty of the University of Bonn.
In 1834-1839 he worked under the direction of I. Müller at the Anatomical Museum of the University of Berlin. Since 1839, he settled in Belgium, where he was mainly engaged in teaching activities. In 1839-1848, professor of anatomy in Louvain. In 1848-1880, at the University of Liege, he was first a professor in the department of general and special anatomy, and then headed the department of physiology and comparative anatomy.
T. Schwann received his Doctor of Medicine degree for his work on the influence of air on the development of bird eggs (1834). Investigating the processes of digestion, T. Schwann refuted the then accepted opinion about the digestive significance of gastric mucus and discovered a digestive enzyme (1836), which he called pepsin (see). They showed the participation of yeast fungi in fermentation processes. The works of T. Schwann on the fine structure of blood vessels, smooth muscles and nerves are well known. In nerve fibers, he described the membrane surrounding the axial cylinder and came to the conclusion that it consists of individual cells; Since then, these structures have been called by his name (Schwann membrane, or neurilemma; Schwann cells, or lemmocytes). He found that nails have a lamellar structure.
Having met M. Schleiden in 1837, who was engaged in research into the role of the nucleus in a plant cell, T. Schwann reviewed the histological material accumulated by that time and established similarities in the structure of the cells of the notochord and cartilage of animals with plant cells. On this basis, he came to the conclusion that there is a single cellular principle in the structure and development of plant and animal organisms. In 1838, T. Schwann published three preliminary reports on this issue, and in 1839 he published the book “Microscopic study of the correspondence in the structure and growth of animals and plants,” in which he formulated the main provisions of the cell theory (see).
T. Schwann, like R. Brown (1831), considered the nucleus to be a permanent element of the cell. He was the first to describe nucleoli in the nuclei of animal cells (see Cell nucleus, Nucleolus), to which he attached great importance. At the same time, T. Schwann’s specific ideas about cells and their development corresponded to the level of scientific knowledge of that time and were to some extent erroneous. He considered the most important part of a cell to be its membrane, not its contents. He imagined the development of cells as a process reminiscent of crystallization in a homogeneous mucous substance - the “cytoblastema”: first, nucleoli appear, on their basis a nucleus is formed, and then the mucous mass around the nucleus becomes enveloped, and a new cell appears. Despite this, the cell theory created by T. Schwann, that is, the recognition of cells as the biological basis of the unity of the entire organic world, has retained its significance to this day. F. Engels named this theory, along with the law of energy transformation and evolutionary theory, among the three great discoveries, thanks to which natural science “transformed from an empirical science into a theoretical one, becoming, when generalizing the results obtained, a system of materialistic knowledge of nature” (K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, 2nd ed., vol. 20, p. 511).
T. Schwann wrote that conversations with M. Schleiden, who developed the idea of the common origin of cells in his theory of phytogenesis, played a large role in the formation of his ideas. Based on this, many researchers consider T. Schwann and M. Schleiden to be the creators of the cell theory. However, F. Studnicka (Czechoslovakia) and Z. S. Katznelson (USSR) showed that priority in this matter belongs to T. Schwann.
T. Schwann was a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Brussels (1841), the Royal Society of London (1879), and the Paris Academy of Sciences (1879). In 1909, a monument was erected to T. Schwann in Neisse.
Op.: De necessitate aepv atmosphaerici ad evolutionem pulli in ovo incubito, Berolini, 1834; Vorlaufige Mittheilung betref-fend Versuche iiber die Weingahrung und Faulniss, Ann. Phys. Chem. (Lpz.), Bd 41, S. 184, 1837; Mikroskopische Untersuchun-gen iiber die Ubereinstimmung in der Struk-tur und dem Wachsthum der Thiere und Pflanzen, B., 1839 (Russian translation, M.-L. 1939).
Bibliography: Katsnelson Z. S. One Hundred Years of the Study of the Cell, M.-L., 1939; Causey G. The cell of Schwann, Edinburgh - L., 1960; S u d h o f f K. Theodor Schwann, Miinch. med. Wschr., S. 2703 1910.
Schwann, Theodor German. Theodor Schwann Schwann Theodore Date of birth: December 7, 1810 (18101207) Place of birth: Neuss ... Wikipedia
- (Schwann) (1810 1882), German biologist, founder of cell theory. Based on our own research, as well as the work of M. Schleiden and other scientists in the classic work “Microscopic studies on correspondence in structure and growth... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Schwann, Theodor- Theodor Schwann. Schwann Theodor (1810 1882), German biologist, founder of cell theory. Based on our own research, as well as the work of the German botanist M. Schleiden and others in the classic works “Microscopic studies of ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
Schwann Theodor (12/7/1810, Neuss, ‒ 1/14/1882, Cologne), German physiologist and histologist, creator of the cell theory. After graduating from the medical faculty of the University of Bonn (1833), he worked (1834‒39) at the anatomical museum of the Berlin... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
- (Schwann, Theodor) (1810 1882), German histologist and physiologist, one of the creators of the cell theory. Born on December 7, 1810 in Neisse near Düsseldorf. He graduated from the Jesuit college in Cologne, then studied natural sciences and medicine in Bonn,... ... Collier's Encyclopedia
- (Schwann) outstanding German anatomist, physiologist and histologist (1810 1882); from 1829 to 1834 he studied medicine and natural sciences in Bonn, Würzburg and Berlin, where he received the degree of doctor and doctor of medicine for the dissertation De necessitate aëris... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron
Schwann, Theodor Schwann, Theodor German. Theodor Schwann Schwann Theodore Date of birth ... Wikipedia
SCHWANN- Theodor (Theodor Schwann; 1810 1882), one of the largest histologists and physiologists of the first half of the 19th century. He studied natural sciences and medicine in Bonn, Würzburg and Berlin. He was a student and one of the closest collaborators of the famous physiologist Johannes... Great Medical Encyclopedia
- (1810 82) German biologist, founder of cell theory. Based on his own research, as well as the work of M. Schleiden and other scientists in the classic work Microscopic Studies on the Correspondence in the Structure and Growth of Animals and Plants ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Books
- From Heraclitus to Darwin. On the verge of two eras. On the approaches to Darwinism, Lunkevich V.V.. Essays on the history of biology, in which the author makes an attempt to connect the development of biological teachings and...
While in England and France the last remnants of the feudal system disappeared in the 17th-18th centuries, in Germany this turning point in social relations occurred later.
The remnants of feudal relations and the political fragmentation of the country lasted here longer; At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, the feudal structure still remained in the economic life of Germany. The Thirty Years' War experienced by Germany nullified the successes in the development of economic life that marked the 15th and 16th centuries. The basis of the economic system of Germany in the 18th and early 19th centuries. was agriculture. Industry was in its infancy and was represented mainly by guild skills in cities. The level of social development that England and France had reached by this time was only the future for Germany. “The Germans reflected in politics on what other nations were doing,” said K. Marx. Economic stagnation was reflected in the cultural life of Germany, in particular in the development of German science.
In contrast to English empiricism and French materialism of the 18th century, in Germany philosophy develops along the path of idealism. The subjective idealism of Fichte (Fichte, 1762-1814), the natural philosophy of Schelling and his many followers dominated German science at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. From the point of view of natural philosophers, the laws of nature only reflect the creativity of the world spirit. Therefore, in order to understand these laws, it seemed unnecessary to study the specific manifestation of nature in all its diversity. Since the general principle of the creativity of the cosmic spirit has been established, then from this general principle, through thinking, all the particular laws of nature can be deduced and there is no need to bother yourself with direct observations or experiments. The hegemony of natural philosophy left a characteristic imprint on the development of the natural sciences in Germany. For a certain period of time, natural philosophy becomes the official scientific philosophy, and a noticeable stagnation appears in the development of the natural sciences in Germany during the period under review.
However, the trends of the Great French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars shook the stagnant way of economic life in Germany. The feudal economic system is being destroyed, and a bourgeoisie is emerging, striving to catch up with its English and French rivals who have gone far ahead. Although the final elimination of the remnants of feudalism was only the result of the revolution of 1848, the entire second quarter of the last century passes under the banner of the breakdown of old social relations and the associated general rise in the cultural life of the country.
This has a dramatic impact on German science. Natural philosophy ceases to excite scientists. Desk reflections are giving way to experimental research, and exact sciences are developing. Natural science attracts everyone's attention, since without it technical progress, for which the rising German bourgeoisie gives a “social order,” is unthinkable. Only now are large scientific centers being created in Germany and scientific schools are emerging.
Liebig (Justus v. Liebig, 1803-1873) creates a famous chemical school in Giessen.
“Of course,” wrote K. A. Timiryazev (1907), “earlier scientists had individual students, but Liebig in Giessen created the first, in the literal sense of this expression, scientific school, that is, an extensive nursery of scientists who flocked there from all over the world.” ends of the civilized world and returning home as bearers of its system of scientific education” (Works, vol. VIII, p. 149).
Another chemical center appears in Berlin - the Mitscherlich school (Eilhard Mitscherlich, 1794-1863).
In parallel with chemistry, physics begins to develop. Wilhelm Eduard Weber (1804-1891), Georg Simon Ohm (1787-1854), Neumann (Franz Neumann, 1798-1895), Poggendorff (Johann Christian Poggendorff, 1796-1877) worthily represent German physics of that time .
A significant shift is also taking place in the field of biology. Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795-1878) creates a physiological school in Leipzig. Purkin in Breslav groups a significant group of young people around him and creates the first histological school. Finally, in Berlin, around Johannes Müller, perhaps the most brilliant scientific school in the history of the development of biology was formed.
The creation of such scientific centers had a great influence on the development of natural sciences, in particular biology. A healthy competition, mutual exchange of experience, and a critical attitude towards one’s work were created; the general tone of research activity rose, which awakened thought and directed to new discoveries. Mid-19th century was a period of powerful development of German science, as if paying its debt for the era of stagnation during the period of dominance of natural philosophy.
Schleiden (1862), for example, directly stated: “I, according to my convictions, refrained from all Schellingian, natural-philosophical chatter, from all fantastic embellishments; and I am firmly convinced that science does not need this clownish outfit in order to appear, even to unscientific people, on its interesting, attractive side.”
This is the general background against which the activities of Theodor Schwann, the creator of the cell theory and a student of the school of Johannes Müller, developed. The general upsurge that reigned in the cultural life of Germany and was reflected directly in German science supported the exceptionally high tone that lived in the Muller laboratory in Berlin. The horizon expanded for German researchers, they gained strength, they felt that they were creating science. Only with such an upsurge was it possible to do the gigantic work in various fields of biology and medicine that marked the work of Johannes Müller. Only with such an environment, the talented student of the famous teacher, Theodor Schwann, was able to make a number of outstanding discoveries during his five years of work with Müller in Berlin, among which was the cell theory - one of the most important generalizations in the history of the development of biology.
Schwann's biography is original and instructive. Schwann's achievements in the field of biology are not limited to the creation of cell theory. Schwann makes a number of physiological and histological discoveries, each of which in itself could give honorable fame to the scientist. All of them were made by Schwann over the course of five years, while his scientific and pedagogical activities lasted about fifty years. During the five years of his Berlin period of work, Schwann manifests himself as a scientific genius; during the forty-odd years of subsequent professorial activity, he is a modest professor at a provincial university.
Theodor Schwann was born on December 7, 1810 in Düsseldorf. His grandfather and father were jewelers. Later, Schwann's father opens a printing house. Seventy years later, a jubilee collection dedicated to the fortieth anniversary of the professorship of Theodor Schwann is printed in this printing house.
After finishing primary school, at the age of ten, Schwann entered the pro-gymnasium in Neuss, and at the age of sixteen he went to the Jesuit gymnasium in Cologne. The Schwann family was always distinguished by its religiosity; this, together with their upbringing in a Jesuit school, left its mark on Theodor Schwann, who later remained a devout Catholic. At the gymnasium, Schwann showed considerable interest in mathematics and physics. After graduating from high school, he entered the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Bonn, preparing for a spiritual career. However, his inclination towards natural sciences wins out, and Schwann transfers to the medical faculty of the same university. This choice, and indeed a significant period of his later life, was influenced by a meeting with Johannes Müller, who then received a professorship at the University of Bonn. Schwann becomes an ardent admirer of Muller, attends his lectures and helps him in setting up experiments. Thus, the Müller school began for Schwann during his student period.
In the fall of 1831, Schwann moved to the University of Würzburg, where clinics were better set up. In April 1833 he moved to Berlin, where by this time Müller had received the department. In 1833, Schwann graduated from the university and, on the advice of Müller, took the topic of his dissertation to study the importance of oxygen for the development of the chicken embryo. Schwann finds out that traces of development can take place in an oxygen-free environment, but in the absence of oxygen, development stops in the early stages.
Having defended his dissertation in 1834, Schwann took Müller's position as an employee of the anatomical museum. Schwann remained in this position for five years, working hard under the guidance of his teacher, and subsequently independently. These five years brought Schwann worldwide fame; During this period he also carried out his remarkable microscopic studies.
Henle, Schwann's senior laboratory comrade, in his obituary dedicated to his friend, shares his memories of Schwann during the Berlin period of his life. “I see him in front of me, a man of average height, with a shaven face, having an almost childish and invariably clear expression, with smooth but combed up dark brown hair, in a dressing gown bordered with fur, in a narrow, somewhat gloomy back room on the second floor of a restaurant (less than second rank) on the corner of Friedrich and Mohrenstrasse, in a room that he did not leave for many days in a row, surrounded by a few books, but then countless flasks, bottles, flasks with reagents and homemade primitive apparatus" (Henle, 1882, pp. I-II) .
Together with Müller, Schwann studied the physiology of digestion during this period. In 1836, their joint work on artificial digestion first appeared, and later Schwann’s work “On the Essence of the Digestive Process” appeared. In this study, Schwann makes an outstanding physiological discovery: he proves that the “active principle” of gastric juice is a special chemical substance, which he gave the name “pepsin”.
Schwann further explores the possibility of arbitrary spontaneous generation. A priori, he does not admit this possibility, but the series of experiments he carried out did not give a clear answer, and the resolution of the long-term dispute later fell to Pasteur (Louis Pasteur, 1822-1895). Research on spontaneous generation led Schwann to study decay, mold, and fermentation. Schwann discovers yeast fungi and proves their participation in the fermentation process. Since 1833 Yog. Müller begins to publish his famous manual on physiology, conceived as a summary of facts critically verified and subjected to his own processing. Schwann takes part in this work along with other Mueller assistants. Apparently, this coincided with the beginning of Schwann's studies in microscopic research. He studies the structure of striated muscles, establishes their fibril composition and isolates primary muscle fibers. At the same time, Schwann studies the physiology of muscle contraction using the “muscle scales” he designed. Dubois-Reymond wrote that this was the first work where the vital forces were studied from a purely physical point of view and found mathematical expression. “In an environment dominated by the dominant idealist philosophy and the theories of Fichte and Hegel, this, as it is called, Schwann’s “fundamental experience” was a revelation and became the starting point of a new physiology” (M. Florkin, 1960, p. 40).
Schwann studies the peripheral nervous system, discovers the division of primary nerve fibers and discovers the membrane, later called the “Schwann membrane”.
Schwann is increasingly interested in histological research. In frog tadpoles he found a convenient object for solving many controversial issues of histology. He continues the study of notochord and cartilage tissues begun by Müller on cyclostomes. The cells of the notochord and cartilage are distinguished by vacuolization and turgor, reminiscent of plant cells. Among animal tissues there is no more convenient example for comparing plant and animal cells.
A meeting with Schleiden, who told Schwann about his observations on the role of the nucleus in the process of formation of plant cells, orients Schwann's thought in a certain direction: Schwann is struck by the similarity of his own observations on animal tissues with what has already been established for plant tissues. This is how the fundamental idea was born, which formed the basis of the main work of Theodor Schwann, who revolutionized biology. From this point of view, he reconsiders all the factual material and in January-April 1838 publishes three messages, which later formed the basis of a book dated 1839. An analysis of this classic work, which forever immortalized the name of Theodor Schwann, will be done further.
In 1839, Schwann accepted an invitation to take the position of professor of anatomy at the university in Louvain. Having moved to Belgium, Schwann no longer practices histology. In Louvain he published another physiological study on the role of bile (1844); this was the last experimental work Schwann published.
In 1848, Schwann moved to the department in Liege, but even here he was mainly engaged in pedagogical work and, although, apparently, he did not completely stop laboratory research, he published almost nothing. Having published his wonderful book, which provided a program of work for a number of generations, Schwann strangely cooled towards the doctrine of the cell and in his lectures even in 1860 he set out the ideas that he had developed in Berlin.
In 1878, the University of Liege celebrated the 40th anniversary of Schwann's professorship with a ceremonial meeting and the publication of a collection, and two years later Schwann left the department; On January 11, 1882, he died of apoplexy.
One can make many guesses about the reasons for the stoppage of Schwann's scientific activity, which began so rapidly and fruitfully after moving to Belgium. Most likely, Schwann was one of the people who needed external charging to demonstrate their abilities. In the laboratory of Johannes Müller, Schwann was surrounded by the vigorous work of a whole team creating science. This environment ignited the young scientist, awakened wonderful thoughts in him, and gave him the energy to put them into practice. Having not encountered such a situation in Louvain, Schwann “cooled down” before his creative abilities were exhausted, and was content with the “rent” that the fame of his five-year work with Müller in Berlin brought him.
Florken, the author of new monographs on Schwann, who used previously unpublished materials and published his letters, believes that three periods must be distinguished in Schwann’s life: stoic, scientific and mystical. After the moral crisis that, according to Florquin, Schwann experienced in 1838, he showed signs of neurosis and his scientific courage was lost in attempts to combine a scientific worldview with religious mysticism. However, the speech delivered by Schwann at the anniversary two years before his death was the speech of a scientist who enthusiastically defended the “physical,” i.e., materialistic understanding of life. One feels that the atmosphere of the anniversary, in which the entire scientific world participated, again lit the extinguished torch of his scientific genius in the elderly scientist.
We may regret it, but no one can deny that what Schwann did is enough to immortalize his name, and Schwann's classic book will always mark one of the most important milestones in the history of biology.
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Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov compared science to a construction site, where knowledge, like bricks, creates the foundation of the system. Likewise, the cell theory with its founders - Schleiden and Schwann - is shared by many naturalists and scientists, their followers. One of the creators of the theory of the cellular structure of organisms, R. Virchow, once said: “Schwann stood on the shoulders of Schleiden.” It is the joint work of these two scientists that will be discussed in the article. About the cell theory of Schleiden and Schwann.
Matthias Jacob Schleiden
At the age of twenty-six, the young lawyer Matthias Schleiden (1804-1881) decided to change his life, which did not please his family at all. Having given up his legal practice, he transferred to the medical faculty of the University of Heidelberg. And at the age of 35 he became a professor at the Department of Botany and Plant Physiology at the University of Jena. Schleiden saw his task as unraveling the mechanism of cell reproduction. In his works, he correctly highlighted the primacy of the nucleus in the processes of reproduction, but did not see any similarities in the structure of plant and animal cells.
In the article “On the Question of Plants” (1844), he proves the commonality in the structure of all, regardless of their location. A review of his article is written by the German physiologist Johann Muller, whose assistant at that time was Theodor Schwann.
Failed priest
Theodor Schwann (1810-1882) studied at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Bonn, as he considered this direction to be closest to his dream of becoming a priest. However, the interest in natural science was so strong that Theodore graduated from the university already at the Faculty of Medicine. the aforementioned I. Muller, in five years he made so many discoveries that would be enough for several scientists. This includes the detection of pepsin and nerve fiber sheaths in gastric juice. It was he who proved the direct participation of yeast fungi in the fermentation process.
Companions
The scientific community of Germany at that time was not very large. Therefore, the meeting of the German scientists Schleiden and Schwann was a foregone conclusion. It took place in a cafe during one of the lunch breaks, in 1838. Future colleagues discussed their work. Matthias Schleiden and Theodor Schwann shared his discovery of recognizing cells by their nuclei. Repeating Schleiden's experiments, Schwann studies cells of animal origin. They communicate a lot and become friends. And a year later, the joint work “Microscopic studies on the similarity in the structure and development of elementary units of animal and plant origin” appeared, which made Schleiden and Schwann the founders of the doctrine of the cell, its structure and life activity.
Theory about cellular structure
The main postulate reflected in the work of Schwann and Schleiden is that life is found in the cells of all living organisms. The work of another German - pathologist Rudolf Virchow - in 1858 finally clarified it. It was he who supplemented the work of Schleiden and Schwann with a new postulate. “Every cell is a cell,” he put an end to the issues of spontaneous generation of life. many consider him a co-author, and some sources use the phrase “cellular theory of Schwann, Schleiden and Virchow.”
Modern doctrine of the cell
One hundred and eighty years that have passed since that moment have added experimental and theoretical knowledge about living beings, but the basis remains the cell theory of Schleiden and Schwann, the main postulates of which are as follows:
Bifurcation point
The theory of German scientists Matthias Schleiden and Theodor Schwann became a turning point in the development of science. All branches of knowledge - histology, cytology, molecular biology, pathological anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, embryology, evolutionary studies and many others - received a powerful impetus in development. The theory, which provided new understanding of the interactions within a living system, opened up new horizons for scientists, who immediately took advantage of them. Russian I. Chistyakov (1874) and Polish-German biologist E. Strassburger (1875) reveal the mechanism of mitotic (asexual) cell division. Followed by the discovery of chromosomes in the nucleus and their role in the heredity and variability of organisms, deciphering the process of DNA replication and translation and its role in protein biosynthesis, energy and plastic metabolism in ribosomes, gametogenesis and zygote formation.
All these discoveries form bricks into the building of science about the cell as a structural unit and the basis of all life on planet Earth. A branch of knowledge, the foundation of which was laid by the discoveries of friends and associates, such as the German scientists Schleiden and Schwann. Today, biologists are armed with electron microscopes with a resolution of tens and hundreds of times and sophisticated instruments, methods of radiation labeling and isotope irradiation, gene modeling technologies and artificial embryology, but the cell still remains the most mysterious structure of life. More and more new discoveries about its structure and life activity are bringing the scientific world closer to the roof of this building, but no one can predict whether and when its construction will end. In the meantime, the building is not completed, and we are all waiting for new discoveries.