Hugo von Mohl

About Hugo von Mohl

Who is it?: Botanist
Birth Day: April 08, 1805
Birth Place: Stuttgart, German
Died On: 1 April 1872 (1872-05) (aged 66)\nTübingen
Birth Sign: Taurus
Fields: botany
Author abbrev. (botany): Mohl

Hugo von Mohl Net Worth

Hugo von Mohl was born on April 08, 1805 in Stuttgart, German, is Botanist. Hugo von Mohl was a German botanist who was a major figure in the emerging fields of plant anatomy and physiology in the mid-19th century. His research on the plant cell, in particular the cell wall and cell division, paved the way for the development of the cell theory. His works helped in establishing botany as a distinct scientific field. Born into a socially respected family as the son of a statesman, he received a classical education. From an early age, he displayed a keen interest in botany and mineralogy, subjects which he pursued in his leisure time. He studied medicine on growing up, but his deep interest in botany led him to Munich where he collaborated with a group of distinguished botanists and began his research. His research covered diverse botanical fields, and he gained much attention for his description of the behavior of the protoplasm in cell division. Appointed a professor of botany in Tübingen, he spent his entire career there, immersing himself in research whenever he was not teaching. Over the course of his career he made many valuable contributions to botany, especially on the anatomy of the plant cell. He was the first to propose that new cells are formed by cell division and also provided the first clear explanation of the role of osmosis.
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Biography/Timeline

1766

He was a son of the Württemberg statesman Benjamin Ferdinand von Mohl (1766–1845), the family being connected on both sides with the higher class of state officials of Württemberg. While a pupil at the gymnasium he pursued botany and mineralogy in his leisure time, till in 1823 he entered the University of Tübingen. After graduating with distinction in Medicine he went to Munich, where he met a distinguished circle of botanists, and found ample material for research.

1828

This seems to have determined his career as a Botanist, and he started in 1828 those anatomical investigations which continued till his death. In 1832 he was appointed professor of botany in Tübingen, a post which he never left. Unmarried, his pleasures were in his laboratory and library, and in perfecting optical apparatus and microscopic preparations, for which he showed extraordinary manual skill. He was largely a self-taught Botanist from boyhood, and, little influenced in his opinions even by his teachers, preserved always his independence of view on scientific questions. He received many honours during his lifetime, and was elected foreign fellow of the Royal Society in 1868.

1835

A Cell division under Microscope was first discovered by Hugo von Mohl in 1835 as he worked over Green algae Cladophora glomerata.

1840

Mohl's early investigations on the structure of palms, of cycads, and of tree ferns permanently laid the foundation of all later knowledge of this subject: so also his work on Isoetes (1840). His later anatomical work was chiefly on the stems of dicotyledons and gymnosperms; in his observations on cork and bark he first explained the formation and origin of different types of bark, and corrected errors relating to lenticels. Following on his early demonstration of the origin of stomata (1838), he wrote a classical paper on their opening and closing (1850).

1845

Mohl's writings cover a period of forty-four years; the most notable of them were republished in 1845 in a volume entitled Vermischte Schriften (For lists of his works see Botanische Zeitung, 1872, p. 576, and Royal Soc. Catalogue, 1870, vol. iv.) They dealt with a variety of subjects, but chiefly with the structure of the higher forms, including both rough anatomy and minute histology. The word protoplasm was his suggestion; the nucleus had already been recognized by R. Brown and others; but Mohl showed in 1844 that the protoplasm is the source of those movements which at that time excited so much attention.

1851

He recognized under the name of primordial utricle the protoplasmic Li Ning of the vacuolated cell, and first described the behaviour of the protoplasm in cell division. These and other observations led to the overthrow of Schleiden's theory of origin of cells by free-cell-formation. His contributions to knowledge of the cell-wall were no less remarkable; he held the view now generally adopted of growth of cell-wall by apposition. He first explained the true nature of pits, and showed the cellular origin of vessels and of fibrous cells; he was, in fact, the true founder of the cell theory. Clearly the author of such researches was the man to collect into one volume the theory of cell-formation, and this he did in his treatise Die vegetabilische Zelle (1851), a short work translated into English (Ray Society, 1852).

1872

In 1843 he started the weekly Botanische Zeitung in conjunction with Schlechtendal, which he edited jointly till his death. He was never a great Writer of comprehensive works; no textbook exists in his name, and it would indeed appear from his withdrawal from co-operation in Hofmeister's Handbuch that he had a distaste for such efforts. In 1850, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In his latter years his productive activity fell off, doubtless through failing health, and he died suddenly at Tübingen on 1 April 1872.