Heidenhain

Heidenhain, Martin (born 1864), son of Rudolf H., a well-known German histologist. From 1891 he was prosector in Würzburg under von Kelliker, and from 1899 professor of anatomy at Tübingen. His works of the 1890s and 1900s, typical of the cytological period of histology, are characterized by great technical mastery and concern the most subtle questions of cellular structure and histological technique. Among them it is necessary to note: the classic studies on centrosomes in resting cells, which he succeeded in discovering by means of iron hematoxylin staining (this staining has since firmly entered histological practice and retains the name of Heidenhain); works on the nucleus (oxychromatin); on the fine structure of muscles, in particular of heart muscles; studies on the principles of histological staining, which, in his opinion, is a chemical process. The results of the works of this period entirely entered his great two-volume work, 'Plasma und Zelle' (Jena, 1907–11). Subsequent works concern the division of taste buds, glandular lobules, and other complex formations; they formed the basis of the doctrine of independent systems constituting the organism, which Heidenhain called 'syntesiology' and on the completion of which he is currently working. To the works of Heidenhain of the last period belongs the treatise 'Formen und Krafte in der lebendigen Natur' (Leipzig, 1923), in which the author subjects Driesch's doctrine to criticism.