Abraham Trembley

Abraham Trembley (3 September 1710 – 12 May 1784 Geneva) was a Swiss naturalist. He is best known for being the first to study freshwater polyps or hydra and for being among the first to develop experimental zoology. His mastery of experimental method has led some historians of science to credit him as the "father of biology".^[1]

Biography

Trembley came from an officer's family from Geneva, Switzerland.

Work on hydra

While Trembley thought he had discovered a new species, Leeuwenhoek had in fact first published on Hydra in 1702-1703 volume of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, describing them as a type of "animalculum". In his work Leeuwenhoek clearly described the process of budding, as well as tentacles contractility and the presence of cnidocyte batteries on tentacles^[3]

Trembley's findings were published in a 1744 book, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire d'un genre de polypes d'eau douce, translated into German in 1791 as Abhandlungen zur Geschichte einer Polypenart des süssen Wassers.

Some attribute Trembley as being the first to study stem cells, although he obviously did not refer to them as such. Trembley did however make note of their incredible regenerative capacity.

References

1. ^ See Ratcliff, op.cit., p. 556, n. 1.
2. ^ See Ratcliff, op.cit., p. 569.
3. ^ Phil.Trans.Roy.Soc., 1702-1703,vol.23,N 283,pp. 1304-1311//Part of a Letter from Mr Antony van Leeuwenhoek, F. R. S. concerning Green Weeds Growing in Water, and Some Animalcula Found about ThemPart of a Letter from Mr Antony van Leeuwenhoek, F. R. S. concerning Green Weeds Growing in Water, and Some Animalcula Found about Them

Further reading

• Breen, Quirinus (1 January 1956). "Baker, John R., Abraham Trembley of Geneva, Scientist and Philosopher, 1710-1784". Journal of the Medical Library Association 44 (1): 84–85. PMC 199989. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=199989. Retrieved 2006-09-24. 
• Ratcliff, Marc J. (December 2004). "Abraham Trembley’s Strategy of Generosity and the Scope of Celebrity in the Mid-Eighteenth Century". Isis 95 (4): 555–575. doi:10.1086/430649. PMID 16011294. http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/ISIS/journal/issues/v95n4/950401/950401.web.pdf. Retrieved 2006-09-24. 
• Science and Its Times: Understanding the Social Significance of Scientific Discovery, entries on Abraham Trembley, as reproduced on http://www.bookrags.com/Abraham_Trembley.
• Animal, Vegetable and Mineral: Natural History books by ten authors, on-line exhibit, Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University
• Online biography, Institute and Museum of the History of Science, Florence