Jan Evangelista PurkinjeBorn 17 Dec 1787; died 28 Jul 1869 at age 81.Czech pioneer of experimental physiology whose investigations in the fields of histology, embryology and pharmacology helped to create a modern understanding of the eye and vision, brain and heart function, mammalian reproduction and the composition of cells. In 1837, Purkinje described not only clusters of beautiful drop-like cells, but also subtle elongated fiber-like processes in their vicinity, which seemed to be peculiar to the nervous system. Purkinje was the first to use the microtome, potassium bichromate and Canada balsam in the preparation of histological slides for microscopy. Purkinje introduced the scientific terms plasma, a component of blood, and protoplasm, used to describe young animal embryos. |
