Dictionary of Meaning
<<Back
Please select a letter:
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
H |
I |
J |
K |
L |
M |
N |
O |
P |
Q |
R |
S |
T |
U |
V |
W |
X |
Y |
Z |
0-9
Click here for Shopping
Nathanael Pringsheim
*** Shopping-Tip: Nathanael Pringsheim
'''Nathanael Pringsheim''' (
30 November 1823 -
6 October 1894) was a
Germany German botanist.
He was born at
Wziesko in
Silesia, and studied at the universities of
Breslau,
Leipzig, and
Berlin successively. He graduated in 1848 as doctor of philosophy with the thesis ''De forma et incremento stratorum crassiorum in plantarum cellula'', and rapidly became a leader in the great botanical renaissance of the 19th century.
His contributions to scientific
algology were of striking interest. Pringsheim was among the very first to demonstrate the occurrence of a sexual process in this class of plants, and he drew from his observations weighty conclusions as to the nature of sexuality.
Together with the French investigators
Gustave Adolphe Thuret (1817-1875) and
Jean-Baptiste Édouard Bornet (1828-1911), Pringsheim ranks as the founder of our scientific knowledge of the
algae. Among his researches in this field may be mentioned those on ''
Vaucheria'' (1855), the
Oedogoniaceae (1855-1858), the
Coleochaeteae (1860), ''
Hydrodictyon'' (1861), and ''
Pandorina'' (1869); the last-mentioned memoir bore the title ''Beobachtungen uber die Paarung de Zoosporen''. This was a discovery of fundamental importance; the conjugation of
zoospores was regarded by Pringsheim, with good reason, as the primitive form of
sexual reproduction.
A work on the course of morphological differentiation in the
Sphacelariaceae (1873), a family of marine algae, is of great interest, inasmuch as it treats of evolutionary questions; the authors point of view is that of
Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli (1817-1891) rather than
Charles Darwin Darwin. Closely connected with Pringsheim's algological work was his long-continued investigation of the
Saprolegniaceae, a family of algoid fungi, some of which have become notorious as the causes of disease in
fish.
Among his contributions to our knowledge of the higher plants, his exhaustive monograph on the curious genus of water-ferns, ''
Savinia'', deserves special mention. His career as a morphologist culminated in 1876 with the publication of a memoir on the alternation of generations in
thallophytes and
mosses. From 1874 to the close of his life Pringsheim's activity was chiefly directed to physiological questions: he published, in a long series of memoirs, a theory of the carbon-assimilation of green plants, the central point of which is the conception of the
chlorophyll-pigment as a screen, with the main function of protecting the
protoplasm from light-rays which would neutralize its assimilative activity by stimulating too active respiration. This view has not been accepted as offering an adequate explanation of the phenomena. Pringsheim founded in 1858, and edited till his death, the classical ''
Jahrbücher für wissenschaftliche Botanik'', which still bears his name. He was also founder, in 1882, and first president, of the [http://www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/pages/englframe.html German Botanical Society].
His work was for the most part carried on in his private laboratory in Berlin; he only held a teaching post of importance for four years, 1864-1868, when he was professor at
Jena. In early life he was a keen politician on the Liberal side. He died in Berlin.
A fuller account of Pringsheims career will be found in ''
Nature (journal) Nature'', (1895) vol. Ii., and in the ''Berichte derdeutschen botanischen Gesellschaft'', (~ 895) vol. xiii. The latter is by his friend and colleague,
Ferdinand Tohn.
The standard
Binomial nomenclature#Authorship in scientific names botanical author abbreviation '''Pringsh.''' is applied to
species he described.
External links
-
Jewish Encyclopedia
Article References
:{{1911}}
See also
*
Pringsheim
Category:1823 births Pringheim, Nathanael
Category:1894 deaths Pringheim, Nathanael
Category:Algologists Pringheim, Nathanael
Category:Botanists with author abbreviations Pringheim, Nathanael
Category:German botanists Pringheim, Nathanael
Category:Mycologists Pringheim, Nathanael
de:Nathanael Pringsheim
fr:Nathanael Pringsheim
*** Shopping-Tip: Nathanael Pringsheim
