Fritz Muller

Fritz Müller (Fritz Müller, 1822-97), German biologist. Müller studied natural sciences and medicine in Berlin and Greifswald; in 1848 he went to the German colony of Blumenau in southern Brazil, where he later lived as a farmer; from 1856-67 he taught on the island of Santa Catarina (Brazil), but due to the machinations of the Jesuits was compelled to return to Blumenau, where he died. Müller was an excellent field naturalist who made many discoveries and observations in biology, in the field of mimicry, adaptations of plants to pollination, the biology of bees, ants, termites, diptera, etc. He was in correspondence with C. Darwin, and he authored a small but substantial book "For Darwin" ("Für Darwin"), where on the basis of research on the larval stages of crustaceans, he formulated for the first time, before Haeckel, the so-called "fundamental biogenetic law" in the following words: "In the history of development of the individual, the historical development of the species is reflected more or less completely." - Müller published a total of 248 works, collected and republished by A. Möller (Fritz Müller, Werke, Briefe u. Leben, hrsg. v. A. Möller, B. I-III, Jena, 1915-21; the third volume contains a biography of Müller).