Richard Altmann was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 pathologist and histologist (tissue

Biological tissue

Tissue is a cellular organizational level intermediate between cells and a complete organism. A tissue is an ensemble of cells, not necessarily identical, but from the same origin, that together carry out a specific function. These are called tissues because of their identical functioning...

 researcher) from Deutsch Eylau in the Province of Prussia

Province of Prussia

The Province of Prussia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1829-1878 created out of the provinces of East Prussia and West Prussia....

. He studied medicine in Greifswald

Greifswald

Greifswald , officially, the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald is a town in northeastern Germany. It is situated in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, at an equal distance of about from Germany's two largest cities, Berlin and Hamburg. The town borders the Baltic Sea, and is crossed...

, Königsberg

Königsberg

Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...

, Marburg

Marburg

Marburg is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn. It is the main town of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district and its population, as of March 2010, was 79,911.- Founding and early history :...

, and Giessen, and earned his doctorate at the University of Giessen

University of Giessen

The University of Giessen is officially called the Justus Liebig University Giessen after its most famous faculty member, Justus von Liebig, the founder of modern agricultural chemistry and inventor of artificial fertiliser.-History:The University of Gießen is among the oldest institutions of...

 in 1877. Afterwards, he was a prosector

Prosector

A prosector is a person with the special task of preparing a dissection for demonstration, usually in medical schools or hospitals. Many important anatomists began their careers as prosectors working for lecturers and demonstrators in anatomy and pathology....

 at Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

, and in 1887 became a professor (extraordinary) of anatomy

Anatomy

Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...

. He died in Hubertusburg

Hubertusburg

thumb|right|300px|Hubertusburg, WermsdorfHubertusburg is a palace in Saxony, in the village of Wermsdorf and midway 6 m. between the towns Oschatz and Grimma. It was built in 1721-1724 by Frederick Augustus I, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, and is given to his son Augustus III in 1724, as a...

 in 1900 from a nervous disorder.

Altmann is known for his work involving cell theory

Cell theory

Cell theory refers to the idea that cells are the basic unit of structure in every living thing. Development of this theory during the mid 17th century was made possible by advances in microscopy. This theory is one of the foundations of biology...

 and structure. In his study of animal cells, he investigated small granules in the protoplasm

Protoplasm

Protoplasm is the living contents of a cell that is surrounded by a plasma membrane. It is a general term of the Cytoplasm . Protoplasm is composed of a mixture of small molecules such as ions, amino acids, monosaccharides and water, and macromolecules such as nucleic acids, proteins, lipids and...

 of the cell. He called these particles- bioblasts, which he postulated were elementary organisms that had metabolic and genetic

Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....

 autonomy. Today Altmann's bioblasts are known as mitochondria. In 1890 Altmann published his findings in a treatise named Die Elementarorganismen (The Elementary Organism), which was met with skepticism by many in the scientific community.

Altmann is credited for coining the term "nucleic acid

Nucleic acid

Nucleic acids are biological molecules essential for life, and include DNA and RNA . Together with proteins, nucleic acids make up the most important macromolecules; each is found in abundance in all living things, where they function in encoding, transmitting and expressing genetic information...

", in exchange for Friedrich Miescher

Friedrich Miescher

Johannes Friedrich Miescher was a Swiss physician and biologist. He was the first researcher to isolate and identify nucleic acid.-Biography:...

's (1844-1895) nuclein, when it was demonstrated that nuclein had acidic properties. Altmann also developed an histological stain which consists of picric acid

Picric acid

Picric acid is the chemical compound formally called 2,4,6-trinitrophenol . This yellow crystalline solid is one of the most acidic phenols. Like other highly nitrated compounds such as TNT, picric acid is an explosive...

, aniline

Aniline

Aniline, phenylamine or aminobenzene is an organic compound with the formula C6H5NH2. Consisting of a phenyl group attached to an amino group, aniline is the prototypical aromatic amine. Being a precursor to many industrial chemicals, its main use is in the manufacture of precursors to polyurethane...

, and acid fuchsin, and is used setting for staining mitochondria crimson against a yellow background.

Literary works

• Über Nucleinsäuren. Archiv für Anatomie und Physiologie. Physiologische Abteilung. Leipzig, 1889, 524-536.
• Zur Geschichte der Zelltheorien (The History of Cell Theories) . Ein Vortrag. Leipzig, 1889.
• Die Elementarorganismen, 1890