<Back to Index>
- Biologist Abraham Trembley, 1710
- Composer Francisco Paulo Mignone, 1897
- Governor General of British North America Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, 1724
PAGE SPONSOR
Abraham Trembley (3 September 1710 – 12 May 1784 Geneva) was a Swiss naturalist. He is best known for being the first to study fresh water 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".
Trembley came from an officer's family from Geneva, Switzerland.
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.
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.