Matthias Jakob Schleiden

Matthias Jacob Schleiden
Born	(1804-04-05)5 April 1804 Hamburg, Holy Roman Empire
Died	23 June 1881(1881-06-23) (aged 77) Frankfurt am Main, German Empire
Nationality	German
Alma mater	Heidelberg
Known for	Cell theory
Scientific career
Fields	Botany
Institutions	University of Jena, University of Dorpat
Author abbrev. (botany)	Schleid.

Matthias Jakob Schleiden (5 April 1804 – 23 June 1881) was a German botanist and co-founder of the cell theory, along with Theodor Schwann and Rudolf Virchow.

Born in Hamburg, Schleiden was educated at Heidelberg, then practiced law in Hamburg, but soon developed his love for the botany into a full-time pursuit. Schleiden preferred to study plant structure under the microscope. While a professor of botany at the University of Jena, he wrote Contributions to Phytogenesis (1838), in which he stated that the different parts of the plant organism 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 1831 by the Scottish botanist Robert Brown, and sensed its connection with cell division.

Die Entwickelung der Meduse ("The Development of the Medusæ"), in Schleiden's Das Meer

Schleiden was one of the first German biologists to accept Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. He became professor of botany at the University of Dorpat in 1863. He concluded that all plant parts are made of cells and that an embryonic plant organism arises from the one cell. He died in Frankfurt am Main on 23 June 1881.

External links

• Short biography and bibliography in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
• Schwann, Theodor and Schleyden, M. J., Microscopical researches into the accordance in the structure and growth of animals and plants. London: Printed for the Sydenham Society, 1847.
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Schleiden, Matthias Jakob" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• "year=1920" . Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
• Ernst Wunschmann (1890), "Schleiden, Matthias Jacob", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 31, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 417–421
• "Search for 'Schleid.'". International Plant Names Index (IPNI). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries; Australian National Botanic Gardens. Retrieved February 18, 2009.