Heinrich Müller (17 December 1820 – 10 May 1864) was a German

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

and professor at the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one of ...

. He is best known for his work in comparative anatomy and his studies involving the eye. He was a native of Castell,

Lower Franconia Lower Franconia (german: Unterfranken) is one of seven districts of Bavaria, Germany. The districts of Lower, Middle and Upper Franconia make up the region of Franconia. History After the founding of the Kingdom of Bavaria the state was totally ...

. He was a student at several universities, being influenced by Ignaz Dollinger (1770–1841) in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

Friedrich Arnold Friedrich Arnold (8 January 1803 – 5 July 1890) was professor emeritus of anatomy and physiology at Heidelberg. He read medicine at the University of Heidelberg at the same time as his elder brother, Johann Wilhelm Arnold (1801–1873). Arno ...

(1803–1890) in

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

Jakob Henle Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle (; 9 July 1809 – 13 May 1885) was a German physician, pathologist, and anatomist. He is credited with the discovery of the loop of Henle in the kidney. His essay, "On Miasma and Contagia," was an early argument for ...

(1809–1895) in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

and

Carl von Rokitansky Baron Carl von Rokitansky (german: Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky, cs, Karel Rokytanský; 19 February 1804 – 23 July 1878) was a Bohemian physician, pathologist, humanist philosopher and liberal politician, founder of the Viennese School of Medi ...

(1804–1878) in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. In 1847 he received his habilitation at Würzburg, where from 1858 he served as a full professor of topographical and comparative anatomy. As an instructor, he also taught classes in systematic anatomy,

histology Histology, also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology which studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at larger structures vi ...

and microscopy. In 1851 Müller noticed the red color in rod cells now known as rhodopsin or visual purple, which is a pigment that is present in the rods of the

retina The retina (from la, rete "net") is the innermost, light-sensitive layer of tissue of the eye of most vertebrates and some molluscs. The optics of the eye create a focused two-dimensional image of the visual world on the retina, which then ...

. However,

Franz Christian Boll Franz Boll (26 February 1849, Neubrandenburg – 19 December 1879, Rome) was a German physiologist and histologist. He was the son of Lutheran theologian Franz Boll (1805–1875). Boll studied medicine in Bonn, Heidelberg and Berlin, and in 18 ...

(1849–1879) is credited as the discoverer of rhodopsin because he was able to describe its "visual pigment cycle". Müller also described the fibers of neuroglia cells that make up the supporting framework of the retina. This structure was to become known as "Müller's fibers". In 1856, with his colleague Albert von Kölliker (1817–1905), he showed that an electric current was produced from each contraction of a frog's heart.

Additional eponyms

* "Müller's muscle": Circular portion of the

ciliary muscle The ciliary muscle is an intrinsic muscle of the eye formed as a ring of smooth muscleSchachar, Ronald A. (2012). "Anatomy and Physiology." (Chapter 4) . in the eye's middle layer, uvea (vascular layer). It controls accommodation for viewing ...

of the eye. Also called "Rouget's muscle" after French physiologist Charles Marie Benjamin Rouget (1824–1904), and sometimes "Müller-Rouget muscle" in honor of both men. * "Müller's muscle":

superior tarsal muscle The superior tarsal muscle is a smooth muscle adjoining the levator palpebrae superioris muscle that helps to raise the upper eyelid. Structure The superior tarsal muscle originates on the underside of levator palpebrae superioris and inser ...

which is a smooth muscle that adjoins the

levator palpebrae superioris muscle The levator palpebrae superioris ( la, elevating muscle of upper eyelid) is the muscle in the orbit that elevates the upper eyelid. Structure The levator palpebrae superioris originates from inferior surface of the lesser wing of the sphenoid bon ...

and helps to raise the upper eyelid. * "Müller's muscle":

orbitalis muscle The orbitalis muscle is a vestigial or rudimentary nonstriated muscle (smooth muscle) that crosses from the infraorbital groove and sphenomaxillary fissure and is intimately united with the periosteum of the orbit. It was described by Heinrich Mü ...

which is a smooth muscle that crosses from the

infraorbital groove The infraorbital groove (or sulcus) is located in the middle of the posterior part of the orbital surface of the maxilla. Its function is to act as the passage of the infraorbital artery, the infraorbital vein, and the infraorbital nerve. St ...

and

inferior orbital fissure The inferior orbital fissure is formed by the sphenoid bone and the maxilla. It is located posteriorly along the boundary of the floor and lateral wall of the orbit. It transmits a number of structures, including: * the zygomatic branch of the m ...

. * "Müller's trigone": Part of

tuber cinereum The tuber cinereum is a hollow eminence of the middle–ventral hypothalamus, specifically the arcuate nucleus, situated between the mammillary bodies and the optic chiasm. In addition to the ventral hypothalamus, the tuber cinereum includes ...

folding over the

optic chiasm In neuroanatomy, the optic chiasm, or optic chiasma (; , ), is the part of the brain where the optic nerves cross. It is located at the bottom of the brain immediately inferior to the hypothalamus. The optic chiasm is found in all vertebrat ...

of the brain. * " Müller glia": Cells in the

which scaffold and nurture retinal neurons.

Partial bibliography

* ''Nachweis der negativen Schwankung des Muskelstroms am naturlich sich contrahirenden Muskel''. Verhandlungen der Physikalisch-medizinische Gesellschaft in Würzburg, 1856, 6: 528–533. By Rudolph Albert von Kölliker (1817-1905) and Heinrich Müller. * ''Zur Histologie der Netzhaut. Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Zoologie'', 1851, 3: 234–237. Discovery of visual purple. After his death, a large number of his works were published by Otto Becker (1828–1890) in a collection titled ''Heinrich Müller's gesammelte und hinterlassene Schriften zur Anatomie und Physiologie des Auges'' (Heinrich Müller's collected and bequeathed writings on the anatomy and physiology of the eye).Heinrich Müller - Bibliography
@

Who Named It ''Whonamedit?'' is an online English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though it is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliograp ...

References

External Reference

''Heinrich Müller''
@

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Muller, Heinrich 1820 births 1864 deaths People from Kitzingen (district) People from the Kingdom of Bavaria German anatomists Academic staff of the University of Würzburg