Emil Heinrich du Bois-Reymond
| Emil du Bois-Reymond | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
7 November 1818 Berlin, Germany |
| Died | 26 December 1896 (aged 78) Berlin, Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Fields |
Physiology Electrophysiology |
| Known for | Nerve action potential |
| Influenced | Eduard Hitzig |
Emil du Bois-Reymond (7 November 1818 – 26 December 1896) was a German physician and physiologist, the discoverer of nerve action potential, and the developer of experimental electrophysiology.
Du Bois-Reymond was born in Berlin, and spent his working life there. One of his younger brothers was the mathematician Paul du Bois-Reymond (1831–1889). The family was of Huguenot origin.
Educated first at the French College in Berlin, then at Neuchâtel, where his father had returned, du Bois-Reymond became a student of the University of Berlin during 1836. He seems to have been uncertain at first as to the topic of his studies, for he was a student of the renowned ecclesiastical historian August Neander, and dallied with geology, but eventually began to study medicine with such zeal and success as to attract the notice of Johannes Peter Müller (1801–1858), a well-known professor of anatomy and physiology.
Müller's earlier studies had been distinctly physiological, but his preferences caused him later to study comparative anatomy. He had, about the time when the young du Bois-Reymond came to his lectures, published his Elements of Physiology, in which the statement following occurs:
"Though there appears to be something in the phenomena of living beings which cannot be explained by ordinary mechanical, physical or chemical laws, much may be so explained, and we may without fear push these explanations as far as we can, so long as we keep to the solid ground of observation and experiment."
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