Abraham Trembley
Abraham Trembley ( born September 3, 1710 in Geneva, † May 12, 1784 ) was a Swiss zoologist.
Life
Trembley was mainly involved in freshwater polyps ( Hydra ). He was the first who not only watched animals and described, but specific experiments conducted. Therefore it comes to the rank of a father of experimental zoology, according to some leading minds.
Trembley was born in 1710 as the son of a noble family in Geneva. His father was Jean Trembley (1674-1745) Trustee in the Republic of Geneva, syndic de la garde de la République de Genève and his mother Anne Lullin (* 1676 ), he had two brothers, Jean ( 1704-1785 ) and Jacques - André Trembley ( 1714-1763 ). He grew up in a time in which many intellectuals of his native city turned toward the natural history. Between 1726-1730 Trembley is interested in. However, more of Mathematics and completed his university studies at the Academy of Geneva, Académie de Genève with a dissertation on the calculus from. At age 23 he moved Trembley in the Netherlands, where he heard about the year 1735 as a guest student lectures at Leiden University. Later, he was, for about two years, in the Frisian town of Varel (county Oldenburg) as a tutor of Landgrave Friedrich Karl Ludwig Wilhelm IV of Hesse- Homburg busy. He traveled to France, England and German States.
Another activity as tutor he found on the estate of Count William Bentinck near The Hague in the Netherlands. There he led 1740-1744 through most of his observations and experiments. Trembley was in 1743 awarded the Copley Medal. Inspired by his friend René- Antoine de Reaumur Ferchault, with whom he corresponded for 17 years, Trembley published his observations in 1744 in the impressively illustrated book Mémoires pour servir à l' histoire d'un genre de polypes d' eu douce, à bras en forme de cornes ( notes on the natural history of a type of freshwater polyp with horn-shaped arms). This earned him not only recognition, but also had significant influence on naturalist. His book and the works of Reaumur and Charles Bonnet showed how important it is for the study of living organisms, to rely more on accurate observations than on preconceived ideas.
1747 Trembley acknowledged his service to Count Bentinck and took on a secret diplomatic mission for the British government. During this time he wrote several books on education, politics, religion, and moral philosophy. Otherwise - he moved back to his hometown - he lived in a villa in Le Petit- Saconnex, where he met Marie of the streets at the age of 46 years is now completely focused after his marriage in 1757 on the education of his five children. Marie of the streets was the daughter of Pierre from the streets. Trembley finally died in 1784 in his hometown of Geneva.
Important scientific discoveries
He discovered that Hydra can move and thereby depends on the light. He was the first, who proved a phototaxis in eyeless creatures. Abraham Trembley discovered the regenerative capacity of hydras by having them cut in two, and found that these parts developed into complete animals; and further that you can graft parts of a Hyda to another and there they grow, unless the two hydras belong to the same species. The zoologist discovered that Hydra asexually propagated by budding.
At the time of Trembley prevailed in the scientific discussion even before the theory of pre-existing nuclei. This doctrine took faith in the creation and presentation of the fixity of species as a basis. She was especially in the 17th and 18th centuries the dominant idea, which assumed that both animals and plants are already completed prefigured in the nuclei. In ontogenesis should " preformed miniature creatures " only the final size grow. The experiments of Trembley disagreed in their results this view.
Trembley even already observed a cell division, although he had the cell concept was not yet developed. He described and drew the division processes in the unicellular diatom Synedra.
Works (selection)
- Mémoires pour servir à l' histoire d'un genre de polypes d' eau douce, à bras en forme de cornes, 1744.
- Instructions d'un père à ses enfants sur la Nature et la religion, 1775
- Sur la religion naturelle et révélée, 1779