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Jesuit priest Athanasius Kircher's
he showed that maggots and other living creatures developed in decaying tissues. -
Robert Brown
he was the first to recognize the nucleus (a term that he introduced) as an essential constituent of living cells. Brown recognized the general occurrence of the nucleus in these cells and apparently thought of the organization of the plant in terms of cellular constituents. -
Jacob Schleiden
he suggested that every structural element of plants is composed of cells or their products. He said that the lower plants all consist of one cell, while the higher ones are composed of many individual cells. -
Cell Theory was officially formulated
Hints at the idea that the cell is the basic component of living organisms emerged well before 1839 but cell theory was officially formulated. -
Theodor Schwann
Schwann defined the cell as the basic unit of animal structure. . He stated that “the elementary parts of all tissues are formed of cells” and that “there is one universal principle of development for the elementary parts of organisms. -
Rudolf Virchow and Albert Kolliker
They showed that cells are formed through scission of pre-existing cells. This became the basis of the theory of tissue formation, even if the mechanisms of nuclear division were not understood at the time. -
Most important breakthrough
Golgi developed the black reaction. This reaction provided, for the first time, a full view of a single nerve cell and its processes, which could be followed and analyzed even when they were at a great distance from the cell body. -
Wilhelm Waldeyer
Waldeyer introduced the term ‘‘neurons’’ to indicate independent nerve cells. Cell theory as applied to the nervous system became known as the ‘neuron theory. -
Mitochondria Introduced
mitochondria were observed by several authors and named by Carl Benda. -
Organelles identified
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the principal organelles that are now considered to be parts of the cell were identified