René Joachim Henri Dutrochet (14 November 1776 – 4 February 1847) was a French
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
,
botanist and
physiologist. He is best known for his investigation into osmosis.
Early career
Dutrochet was born on
Néons to a noble family, soon ruined in the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
. In 1799 he entered the military marine at
Rochefort
Rochefort () may refer to:
Places France
* Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, in the Charente-Maritime department
** Arsenal de Rochefort, a former naval base and dockyard
* Rochefort, Savoie in the Savoie department
* Rochefort-du-Gard, in the Ga ...
, but soon left it to join the
Vendean army. He then left it to tend to his family's manor in
Touraine
Touraine (; ) is one of the traditional provinces of France. Its capital was Tours. During the political reorganization of French territory in 1790, Touraine was divided between the departments of Indre-et-Loire, :Loir-et-Cher, Indre and Vien ...
. There, he was a keen addition to the scientific nation.
Contributions
His scientific publications were numerous, and covered a wide field, but his most noteworthy work was
embryological
Embryology (from Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, ''-logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the prenatal development of gametes (sex cells), fertilization, and development of embryos and ...
. His ''Recherches sur l'accroissement et la reproduction des végétaux'', published in the ''Mémoires du museum d'histoire naturelle'' for 1821, procured him in that year the
French Academy
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...
's prize for experimental physiology. In 1837 appeared his ''Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire anatomique et physiologique des végétaux et des animaux'', a collection of all his more important biological papers.
He investigated and described
osmosis
Osmosis (, ) is the spontaneous net movement or diffusion of solvent molecules through a selectively-permeable membrane from a region of high water potential (region of lower solute concentration) to a region of low water potential (region o ...
,
[Henri Dutrochet]
''L'Agent Immédiat du Movement Vital Dévoilé dans sa Nature et dans son Mode d'Action chez les Végétaux et chez les Animaux''
he immediate agent of living movement, its nature and mode of action revealed in plants and animals (Paris, France: Dentu, 1826); see especially pages 115 and 126. respiration
Respiration may refer to:
Biology
* Cellular respiration, the process in which nutrients are converted into useful energy in a cell
** Anaerobic respiration, cellular respiration without oxygen
** Maintenance respiration, the amount of cellul ...
, embryology, and the effect of light on plants. He has been given credit for discovering
cell biology and cells in plants and the actual discovery of the process of osmosis. His early researches into the voice introduced the first modern concept of
vocal cord
In humans, vocal cords, also known as vocal folds or voice reeds, are folds of throat tissues that are key in creating sounds through vocalization. The size of vocal cords affects the pitch of voice. Open when breathing and vibrating for speec ...
movement.
The
Mauritian
Mauritians (singular Mauritian; french: Mauricien; Creole: ''Morisien'') are nationals or natives of the Republic of Mauritius and their descendants. Mauritius is a multi-ethnic society, with notable groups of people of South Asian (notably ...
plant genus ''
Trochetia'' was named in his honour.
Works
* New Theory of the Voice (1800)
* New Theory of Harmony (1810)
* Researches in the growth and reproduction of plants (1821)
* Research in
Osteogenesis
Osteoblasts (from the Greek combining forms for "bone", ὀστέο-, ''osteo-'' and βλαστάνω, ''blastanō'' "germinate") are cells with a single nucleus that synthesize bone. However, in the process of bone formation, osteoblasts funct ...
(bone production) (1822)
* Research in the anatomy of animals and plants (1824)
* Research in an agent's immediate vital movement (1826)
* Research in
Endosmosis and
Exosmosis (1828)
* Research in the development of the egg and the fetus
* Research in Radial development in plants and the ascent of Sap.
* Contributions to understanding anatomy and physiology of plants and animals (1837)
* Research in the elliptical force (1842–43)
* Contributions to the modern cell theory
See also
*
Cell theory
In biology, cell theory is a scientific theory first formulated in the mid-nineteenth century, that living organisms are made up of cells, that they are the basic structural/organizational unit of all organisms, and that all cells come from pre ...
References
*
*
*
*
External links
Henri Dutrochet (1776-1847): an unheralded discoverer of the cell* "Nouvelles observations sur l'endosmose et l'exosmose" (1827), online and analyzed o
BibNum lick 'à télécharger' for English analysis/small>
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dutrochet, Rene Joachim Henri
1776 births
1847 deaths
French biologists
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
19th-century French physicians
18th-century French physicians
French physiologists