Kölliker, Rudolf Albert

Born July, 6, 1817, in Zürich; died Nov. 2, 1905, in Würzburg. German histologist and embryologist.

Kölliker was educated in Zürich, Bonn, and Berlin. He was a professor at the University of Zürich from 1845 to 1847 and at Würzberg from 1847 to 1904. He studied the structure and development of tissues from the standpoint of cell theory and the structure of the nervous system from the standpoint of neuron theory. He described meroblastis of the egg cell, showing that cells derive from one another in the process of division. He was the first to establish the existence of unicellular animals (gregarines). Kölliker opposed Darwinism in his theoretical works, developing an idealist theory of development as subject to special intrinsic influences.