Heinrich Müller

Who was Heinrich Müller?

Heinrich Müller was a German anatomist and professor at the University of Würzburg. He is best known for his work in comparative anatomy and his studies involving the eye.

He was a native of Castell, Lower Franconia. He was a student at several universities, being influenced by Ignaz Dollinger in Munich, Friedrich Arnold in Freiburg, Jakob Henle in Heidelberg and Carl von Rokitansky in Vienna. In 1847 he received his habilitation at Würzburg, where from 1858 he served as a full professor of topographical and comparative anatomy. As an instructor, he also taught classes in systematic anatomy, histology and microscopy.

In 1851 Müller noticed the red color in rod cells now known as rhodopsin or visual purple, which is a pigment that is present in the rods of the retina. However, Franz Christian Boll is credited as the discoverer of rhodopsin because he was able to describe its "visual pigment cycle". Müller also described the fibers of neuroglia cells that make up the supporting framework of the retina. This structure was to become known as "Müller's fibers".

In 1856, with his colleague Albert von Kölliker, he showed that an electrical current was produced from each contraction of a frog's heart.