58 PATHFINDERS OF PHYSIOLOGY 



took occasion to relate to his friend his observations and inferences. 

 Schwann was impressed at once with the similarity to his own ob- 

 servations on animal tissues. They at once proceeded to Schwann's 

 laboratory where sections of the spinal cord were examined. Schleiden 

 recognized the nuclei as similar to those he had found in plant cells. 



Theodor Schwann: Schleiden and Schwann seem to have been the 

 most diverse personalities. The former was pugnacious and always 

 ready to take up the gauntlet in controversy; the latter was one of 

 the mildest of men. We are endebted to Henle, a name familiar in 

 microscopic anatomy, for what we know of the life of Schwann. This 

 is Henle's description of him: "He was a man of stature below the 

 medium, with a beardless face, an almost infantile and always smiling 

 expression, smooth dark brown hair, wearing a fur trimmed dressing 

 gown, living in a poorly lighted room on the second floor of a restau- 

 rant which was not even of the second class. He would pass whole 

 days there without going out, with a few rare books around him, and 

 numerous glass vessels, retorts, vials and tubes, simple apparatus 

 which he himself made. Or I go in imagination to the dark and 

 fusty halls of the anatomical institute where we used to work till 

 night fall by the side of our excellent chief, Johann Muller. We took 

 our dinner in the evening, after the English fashion so that we might 

 enjoy more of the advantages of daylight." 



Johann Muller: The mention of Johann Muller is worth a mo- 

 ment's digression. Muller, the son of a poor shoemaker, was bom at 

 Coblentz in July, 1801. Perhaps it was the meagerness of his worldly 

 possessions, for have not all the followers of Saint Crispin been men 

 of lowly estate, that served to bring out the true metal of his charac- 

 ter. Surmounting the disadvantages and lack of opportunity of 

 youth he became eventually one of the great teachers and master 

 minds of German science. The inspiration derived from a great 

 teacher or personality is difficult to comprehend much less to explain. 

 Harvey was influenced by his association with Fabricius; Bernard 

 was similiary inspired by Magendie. The dominant physiological mind 

 during the first half of the nineteenth century was that of Muller. 

 He was the great trainer of anatomists and physiologists. Among 

 desciples during his professorship at Berlin were Virchow, the patho- 

 logist; Du Bois Reymond and Brucke, the physiologsits ; Henle, the 

 anatomist; Helmholtz, and Leiberkuhn. All became distinguished 

 scholars and professors in German universities. In glowing tribute 

 to his master, Helmholtz said: "Whoever comes in contact with men 

 of the first rank has an altered scale of values in life. Such intellec- 

 tual contact is the most interesting event that life can offer." 



Muller's manner and gestures in the classroom reminded his 

 hearers of a Catholic priest. The way he impressed the scientific men 

 of his time is best evidenced by the numerous tributes accorded his 

 memory. Verworn says: "He is one of those monumental figures 

 that the history of every science brings forth but once. They change 

 the whole aspect of the field in which they work and all later growth 

 is influenced by their labors." And of his monumental work the 

 Handbook of Physiology, which appeared in 1833, the same eulogist 

 writes : "This work stands today unsurpassed in the genuinely philos- 



