Heinrich Müller (physiologist)
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Heinrich Müller (December 17, 1820 – May 10, 1864) was a German anatomist and professor at the University of Würzburg. He is best known for his work in comparative anatomy and his studies involving the eye.
He was a native of Castell, Lower Franconia. In 1843 he received his habilitation, and from 1858 was a full professor of topographical and comparative anatomy.
In 1851 Müller noticed the red color in rod cells known as rhodopsin or visual purple, which is a pigment in the rods of the retina. However, Franz Christian Boll (1849-1879) is credited as the discoverer of rhodopsin because he was able to describe its visual pigment cycle.[1] Müller also described the fibers of neuroglia cells that make up the supporting framework of the retina. This structure was to become known as "Müller's fibers".
In 1856 Müller and Swiss physiologist Albert von Kölliker became the first to discover that the contractions of a frog's heart produce an electrical current.
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[edit] Additional eponyms
- Müller's muscle: Circular portion of the ciliary muscle of the eye. Also called Rouget's muscle after French physiologist Charles Marie Benjamin Rouget (1824-1904), and sometimes "Müller-Rouget muscle" in honor of both men.
- Müller's trigone: Part of tuber cinereum folding over the optic chiasm of the brain.
[edit] Partial bibliography
- Nachweis der negativen Schwankung des Muskelstroms am naturlich sich contrahirenden Muskel. Verhandlungen der Physikalisch-medizinische Gesellschaft in Würzburg, 1856, 6: 528-533. By Rudolph Albert von Kölliker (1817-1905) and Heinrich Müller
- Zur Histologie der Netzhaut. Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Zoologie, 1851, 3: 234-237. Discovery of visual purple.
