Essay Sample About Matthias Schleiden: Write More About a Scientist

Free example essay on Matthias Scheilden:
Matthias Scheilden was born on April 5, 1804. He was born in Hamburg, Germany. He died on June 23, 1881. He made a significant impact in science. He came up with a cell theory, which had a large effect of scientific attention to living processes as they happened on the cellular level. His work initiated the field of embryology.

Scheilden first studied law in Heidelberg. In 1826 he received a doctorate and became an attorney in Hamburg, his hometown. He was not as successful in this as he hoped, and he did not enjoy this field of work.

In 1832 he changed his mind about law and decided to study medicine in Goettingen. One of his teachers there got him interesting in botany. He went to Berlin in 1835 and spent time with his uncle, J. Horkel, and another man, Richard Brown. They were both scientists who studied mainly plant anatomy, and based most of their work on questions about the cell formation. Many scientists during this time were interested in the cell formation also.

He investigated plants on a microscopic scale. This was very different from most other scientists who were only interested in naming and classifying plants. In 1837 he stated that plant growth came through the production of new cells from the nuclei of old cells, and that all plant tissues were composed of cells or derivatives of cells. He published this theory in 1938, in his paper ‘Contributions to Phytogenesis’. This theory was not made public until a year later when his friend and colleague Theodore Schwann published his ‘Microscopic Researches into Accordance in the structure and Growth of Animals and Plants’. He was the first scientist to recognize the importance of the cell nucleus and to correctly state that nuclei played a part in cell formation.

Scheilden thought the cell was the center of the vital force. He believed each cell had an individual existence and the life of an organism came from the way in which the cells work together.

He was proved wrong in later discoveries about the mechanics of the process though.

In 1839 Scheilden received his second doctorate for his botanist work. He taught at the University of Jena from 1839 to 1862, and at Dorpat from 1863 to 1864. He worked for Johannes Muller and was influenced by two other scientists, Schelling and Oken.

He also proved that a nucleated cell is the only original constituent of the plant embryo, and that the development of all vegetable tissues must be referred to such cells.

Matthias Scheilden was a very intelligent and well-known man who will always be a big part of science history.