Victor Hensen

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Victor Hensen
A basket net , one of Hensen's inventions, to collect plankton

Christian Andreas Victor Hensen (born February 10, 1835 in Schleswig , † April 5, 1924 in Kiel ) was a German physiologist and marine biologist . He introduced the term plankton to marine biology.

Life

Victor Hensen was born in Schleswig in 1835 as the son of Hans Hensen (1787–1846), director of the institution for the deaf and dumb . His maternal grandfather was the doctor Carl Ferdinand Suadicani . Hensen studied medicine in Würzburg, Berlin and Kiel, among others with Albert von Kölliker , Rudolf Virchow and Johannes Peter Müller . After receiving his doctorate in 1859, he initially taught as a prosector and from 1864 to 1911 as full professor of physiology at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel . In 1877/78, 1887/88 and 1888/89 he was rector of the CAU. In 1873 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

His main research interests were the anatomy and physiology of the sensory organs. He also became known as the inventor of a method for the preparation of chemically pure glycogen from animal tissue. In his later years his main interest was marine biology. He led several research expeditions in the Atlantic, including the Humboldt Foundation's plankton expedition in 1889 . In doing so, he enriched plankton research and fisheries research with quantitative statistical methods. In fisheries research he developed a net for fish eggs, recognized the possibility of recognizing the age of fish from their otoliths , and thus developed quantitative methods for characterizing fish stocks. In his network for fish eggs, he also found other microorganisms, for which he coined the term plankton in 1887. Using fine-meshed silk nets specially developed by him, he filtered the plankton from a 200-meter-high water column with an area of ​​0.1 square meters. By taking random samples in many places in the ocean, Hensen was able to estimate the total amount of plankton in the top 200 m thick water layer. He is therefore considered the "father of quantitative plankton ecology" . Hensen's novel approach and the conclusions drawn from it were controversial in specialist circles. Ernst Haeckel appeared as a prominent critic .

He was a member of the Prussian state parliament and in 1870 succeeded in setting up a commission for the scientific investigation of the German seas , which from 1871 onwards the research ship Pommerania in the North and Baltic Seas .

"On the side", Hensen studied earthworm biology in the garden of his institute in Kiel . As early as 1871 he gave a lecture on this subject in Rostock during the meeting of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors “About the relationship between earthworms and the reclamation of the soil” . In it he reported, among other things, that the earthworms pierce the ground to a depth of well over a meter and that their tubes can serve as channels for the plant roots. With his publications on the usefulness of earthworms, he gained high recognition in agricultural circles; and Charles Darwin quoted Hensen in his last publication The Formation of Vegetable Mold Through the Action of Worms multiply. Hensen also motivated the agricultural scientist Ewald Wollny , who initially thought earthworms were pests and wanted to refute Hensen's views, to carry out his fundamental experiments on the "earthworm question", in which he confirmed that earthworms can bring about significant yield improvements in various crops.

Until the end of his life, Hensen was chairman of the Prussian commission for scientific research into the German seas . In 1975 the research ship Victor Hensen was named after him.

Works (selection)

  • On the fishing of the German coasts , Wiegandt, Hempel and Parey, Berlin 1874
  • The plankton expedition and Haeckel's Darwinism. About some tasks and goals of the descriptive natural sciences , Lipsius and Tischer, Kiel 1891
  • Results of the plankton expedition of the Humboldt Foundation , 5 vols. (52 deliveries), Lipsius and Tischer, Kiel and Leipzig 1992–1912 (ed.)

literature

  • Karl Brandt : Victor Hensen and marine research . In: Wissenschaftliche Meeresuntersuchungen, Kiel Department, New Series 20, 1925, pp. 49-103.
  • Rüdiger Porep: The physiologist and plankton researcher Victor Hensen (1835-1924). His life and work . Neumünster 1970 (= Kiel contributions to the history of medicine and pharmacy 9, with picture and complete list of his writings).
  • G. Kortum: Victor Hensen in the history of marine research (PDF; 774 kB). In: Writings of the Natural Science Association for Schleswig-Holstein 71, 2009, pp. 3–25.
  • Otto Graff : The earthworm question in the 18th and 19th centuries and the importance of Victor Hensen . In: Journal of Agricultural History and Agricultural Sociology 27, 1979, pp. 232–243.
  • Dietrich Trincker:  Hensen, Christian Andreas Victor. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 563 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Reinhard Kölmel: Victor Hensen as a marine researcher. A doctor founded modern biological marine research in Kiel . In: Biologie in our Time 16, No. 3, 1986, pp. 65-70. doi : 10.1002 / biuz.19860160307

Web links

Commons : Victor Hensen  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rector's speeches (HKM)
  2. ↑ Eduard Pflüger : About the representation of the glycogen after Victor Hensen . In: Archive for the entire physiology of humans and animals 95, 1903, pp. 17-18
  3. ^ Franz Schütt: Plankton studies. Objectives Methods and initial results of quantitative-analytical plankton research . Lipsius and Tischer, Kiel 1892, p. 16
  4. ↑ Robert P. McIntosh: The Background of Ecology: Concept and Theory , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1985, p. 53 (English)
  5. ↑ see e.g. E.g .: Ernst Haeckel: Plankton studies , Gustav Fischer, Jena 1890
personal data
SURNAME Hensen, Victor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hensen, Christian Andreas Victor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physiologist and marine biologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1835
PLACE OF BIRTH Schleswig
DATE OF DEATH April 5, 1924
Place of death Kiel