Franz Leydig

Franz von Leydig (21 May 1821 to 13 April 1908) was a German zoologist and comparative anatomist, born in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, the only boy of three children of a minor public official. He later recalled that childhood interests in gardening and beekeeping began his lifelong concern with botany and zoology, and at twelve he acquired a simple microscope. He studied philosophy in Munich from 1840 and medicine at the University of Würzburg from 1842, took his doctorate in medicine at Würzburg in 1847, and taught histology and developmental anatomy under Albert von Kölliker. He became prosector at the zootomic institution in Würzburg in 1848, qualified as a lecturer in 1849 and was appointed professor in 1855. A journey to Sardinia in the winter of 1850 to 1851 made him aware of the rich marine life that became the subject of some of his most important research. In 1857 he became full professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at the University of Tübingen and published his Lehrbuch der Histologie des Menschen und der Tiere, his main contribution to morphology, which reviewed the history of histology including the discovery and definition of the cell.