DU BOIS, REYMOND-ÉMILE. - German physiologist, b. in Berlin on 7 Nov. 1818, d. there on 26 Dec. 1896. He began his scientific activity 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 having electrical properties and that the behavior of the organ, for example of the muscle, in toto under the various physiological and experimental conditions, was the resultant of the behavior of these individual electrical molecules. This theory of his was later contested, since it became evident that electrical molecules were not necessary to explain the phenomena of animal electricity: the electrical state is a condition of the functional state of the organ (muscle).
Following the death of his teacher J. P. Müller, he obtained the chair of physiology at the University of Berlin, previously held by him. He was a mechanist and in his last years was discouraged and pessimistic regarding the human capacity to discover the essence of vital phenomena.
From 1857 to 1877 he directed the Archiv für Anatomie founded by Müller. His principal works: Untersuchungen über tierische 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 Weltraetsel (Berlin 1880), etc.