Engelmann

Engelmann Theodor-Wilhelm (Theodor Wilhelm Engelmann; 1843-1908), famous physiologist-naturalist. From 1861 to 1866 he studied natural sciences and medicine in Jena, Leipzig, Göttingen, and Heidelberg; in 1867 he defended his dissertation on the cornea of the eye in Leipzig, immediately after which he went to Utrecht as an assistant to Donders; in 1871 he received the title of professor, was Donders' successor in the chair of physiology in Utrecht, and in 1897, after the death of Du Bois-Reymond, he took the chair of physiology in Berlin. A brilliantly educated naturalist, E. is known for his works not only in the field of physiology, but also in botany, zoology, histology, and general biology. His first scientific work on the morphology of infusoria was published in 1859 (Zeitschr. f. wissensch. Zoologie), while he was still a gymnasium student, and during the next almost 50 years of his life he gave about 200 studies, many of which are classical and retain their significance to the present time, such as the study of protoplasm movement and ciliated epithelium (summary in Hermann's Handb. d. Physiologie, Vol. I, Lpz., 1872), the method for studying oxygen secretion by plant cells, bearing Engelmann's name, the theory of the distribution of plants at water depths, work on the comparative physiology of color and light perception, etc. An extremely precise and subtle observer, E. was at the same time a brilliant experimenter who enriched science with a number of very ingenious and elegant research methods. Numerous studies by E. are devoted to the physiology of muscles and nerves, vision, and heart. His work on the origin of muscular force (1893), in which he developed his imbibition theory of muscle contraction, attracted general attention, as did his myogenic theory of cardiac activity and his classical study of cardiac nerve activity, in which a nomenclature of the various aspects of this activity was given, which has survived to the present day (chrono-, dromo-, ino-, and batmotropic action). An incomplete (up to 1899 inclusive) list of E.'s works is given in Richet's "Dictionary of Physiology." From 1897 to 1908, E. was the editor of "Archiv der Physiologie."