DU BOIS-REYMOND, EMIL. - German physiologist, b. in Berlin on Nov. 7, 1818, d. there on Dec. 26, 1896. He began his scientific career as a geologist in Bonn but then devoted himself to physiology, opening a new chapter: electrophysiology.
He maintained that living tissues were composed of molecules possessing electrical properties and that the behavior of an organ, e.g., of a muscle, in its various physiological and experimental conditions, was the resultant of the behavior of these individual electrical molecules. This theory was later contested, as it proved unnecessary to posit electrical molecules to explain animal electricity: the electrical state is a condition of the functional state of the organ (muscle).
After the death of his teacher J. P. Müller, he obtained the chair of physiology previously held by Müller at the University of Berlin. He was a mechanist and in his later years became disillusioned and pessimistic regarding humanity’s capacity to discover the essence of vital phenomena.
He directed the Archiv für Anatomie, founded by Müller, from 1857 to 1877. His principal works: Untersuchungen über thierische Elektrizität (2 vols., Berlin 1848-84); Ueber die Grenzen des Naturerkennens (Leipzig 1872); Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur allgemeinen Muskel und Nervenphysiologie (2 vols., 1875-77); Die sieben Welträtsel (Berlin 1880), etc.