Franz von Leydig

Franz von Leydig, also Franz Leydig (German: [ˈlaɪdɪç]; May 21, 1821 – April 13, 1908), was a German zoologist and comparative anatomist.

Franz Leydig was born on May 21, 1821, in Rothenburg ob der Tauber (on the Tauber river). He was the only boy of three children born to Melchior Leydig, a Catholic and a minor public official, and Margareta, a Protestant. Leydig shared both his father’s Catholic religion and hobbies: his father was a keen gardener and beekeeper. Leydig himself recalled later that those childhood interests began his lifelong concern with botany and zoology. At age 12, he acquired a simple microscope, which he used in the majority of his free time.

Leydig studied philosophy in Munich from 1840, and medicine at the University of Würzburg from 1842 under Martin Münz (1785–1848), Schenk, and Franz von Rinecker (1811–1883). He received his doctorate in medicine at Würzburg on August 27, 1847, becoming an assistant in the physiology department, while also teaching histology and developmental anatomy under Albert von Kölliker (1817–1905). In 1848 he became prosector at the zootomic institution in Würzburg in 1848. The following year he qualified as a lecturer, and on May 9, 1855 he was appointed professor. In the winter of 1850–1851, Leydig made a journey to Sardinia, where he became aware of the rich marine life that was to become the subject of some of his most important researches. That journey, coupled with his early preoccupation with microscopy, directed the course of his life’s work.

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