Abraham Trembley

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Abraham Trembley
Illustration of the Hydra (1744)

Abraham Trembley (born September 3, 1710 in Geneva , † May 12, 1784 ibid) was a Geneva zoologist . He dealt mainly with freshwater polyps ( Hydra ) and was the first to not only observe and describe animals, but also to carry out targeted experiments. Therefore, in the opinion of some leading figures, he has the rank of father of experimental zoology.

Life

Trembley was born in 1710 to a noble Geneva family. His parents were Jean Trembley (1674-1745) and Anne Lullin (* 1676). He had two brothers: Jean (1704–1785) and Jacques-André Trembley (1714–1763) and his nephew was the mathematician and philosopher Jean Trembley . He grew up at a time when many intellectuals in his hometown were turning to natural history. Between 1726 and 1730, however, Trembley was initially more interested in mathematics and completed his university studies at the Geneva Academy, Académie de Genève, with a dissertation on differential calculus . At the age of 23 Trembley moved to the Netherlands , where he attended lectures at the University of Leiden around 1735 as a guest auditor . Later he was employed for about two years in the Frisian town of Varel ( county of Oldenburg ) as tutor of Landgrave Friedrich IV. Karl Ludwig Wilhelm von Hessen-Homburg . He traveled to France, England and German states.

He found another job as a private tutor on the estate of Count Wilhelm Bentinck near The Hague in the Netherlands . There he carried out most of his observations and experiments between 1740 and 1744. Trembley was awarded the Copley Medal in 1743 . Encouraged by his friend René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur , with whom he corresponded for 17 years, Trembley published his observations in 1744 in the impressively illustrated book Mémoires, pour servir à l'histoire d'un genre de polypes d'eu douce, à bras en forme de cornes (Notes on the natural history of a type of freshwater polyp with horn-shaped arms). This not only earned him recognition, but also influenced major naturalists. His book, and the works of Réaumur and Charles Bonnet, showed the importance of relying more on precise observation than on preconceived ideas in the study of living organisms.

In 1747 Trembley quit his service with Count Bentinck and took on a secret diplomatic assignment for the British government. During this time he wrote several books on education, politics, religion and moral philosophy. Otherwise - he moved back to his hometown - he lived in a country house in Le Petit-Saconnex , where, after his marriage to Marie von der Strassen in 1757 at the age of 46, he now fully concentrated on raising his five children. Marie von der Strassen was the daughter of Pierre von der Strassen. Trembley eventually died in his native Geneva in 1784.

In 1743 he was elected a member ( Fellow ) of the Royal Society . From 1749 he was a corresponding member of the Académie royale des sciences .

Important scientific discoveries

He discovered that Hydra can move and that it is guided by the light. He was the first to demonstrate phototaxis in eyeless creatures. Abraham Trembley discovered the hydra's ability to regenerate by cutting them in half and noting that these parts re-developed into whole animals; and further that parts of one hyda can be grafted onto another and these can grow there, provided that the two hydras belong to the same species. The zoologist discovered that Hydra reproduces asexually by budding.

At the time of Trembley, the theory of pre-existing germs still dominated the scientific discussion . This doctrine took the belief in creation and the idea of ​​the constancy of species as its basis. It was the predominant idea, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries , which assumed that both animals and plants were already fully formed in the germs. In ontogeny , the “preformed miniature creatures” should only grow to their final size. The results of the Trembley experiments contradicted this view.

Trembley even observed cell division , although he had not yet developed the cell concept at the time. He described and drew the division processes in the unicellular diatom Synedra .

Abraham Trembley's laboratory

Works (selection)

literature

  • John R. Baker: Trembley, Abraham. Dictionary of Scientific Biography 13: 457-8.
  • Howard M. Lenhoff; Sylvia G. Lenhoff: Abraham Trembley and the Origins of Research on Regeneration in Animals. In CE Dinsmore (Ed.): A History of Regeneration Research: Milestones in the Evolution of a Science. 47-66. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
  • A. Vartanian: Trembley's Polyp, La Mettrie, and 18th Century French Materialism. Journal of the History of Ideas 11 (1950): 259-86.

Web links

Commons : Abraham Trembley  - Album with Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Abraham Trembley. The Embryo Project. Arizona State University ( April 13, 2013 memento on the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Family genealogy
  3. ^ Mouza Raskolnikoff: De l'éducation au Siècle des Lumières, Louis de Beaufort governor du prince de Hesse-Hombourg d'après des lettres inédites. Journal des savants Année 1982 Volume 1 Numéro 1 pp. 77-93
  4. ^ Anton Vos: Abraham Trembley, la star du XVIII e siècle. P. 35, Université de Genève, online (PDF; 145 kB)
  5. ^ Encyclopedia.com biography of John R. Baker. In English, online
  6. ^ Entry on Trembley, Abraham (1710 - 1784) in the Archives of the Royal Society , London
  7. ^ List of former members since 1666: Letter T. Académie des sciences, accessed on March 8, 2020 (French).
  8. ^ Tanja van Hoorn: Hydra. The freshwater polyps and their offspring in the anthropology of the Enlightenment. In Manfred Beetz; Jörn Garber; Heinz Thoma: physique and norm. New Perspectives on Anthropology in the Eighteenth Century: The Eighteenth Century Supplementa. BD 14 Wallstein Verlag (2007) ISBN 3-8353-0022-9 pp. 29-48
personal data
SURNAME Trembley, Abraham
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 3, 1710
PLACE OF BIRTH Geneva
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1784
Place of death Geneva