Rudolf Heidenhain


Rudolf Peter Heinrich Heidenhain was a German physiologist born in Marienwerder, East Prussia. His son, Martin Heidenhain, was a highly regarded anatomist.

Academic career

He studied medicine at the Universities of Halle and Berlin. After receiving his doctorate, he remained in Berlin as an assistant to Emil du Bois-Reymond. In 1856 he returned to Halle, and worked in the laboratory of Alfred Wilhelm Volkmann. While serving an assistant at Halle, he made improvements on Hermann Welcker’s procedure for measurement of blood volume.
In 1859 he attained the chair of physiology at the University of Breslau, where he remained for the rest of his career. Three of his famous students at Breslau were Karl Weigert, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, and Albert Wojciech Adamkiewicz. His laboratory was the source of voluminous contributions by himself, his pupils, or his assistants to Pflügers Archiv on a large variety of special topics in the field of his studies.

Work in muscle physiology

Heidenhain is remembered for his work involving muscle and nerve physiology, and contributions made in the study of physiological thermoelectrics. He demonstrated the muscles' self-regulatory process for expenditure of energy, as well as its ability to "economize" energy. Heidenhain showed that total output energy increases with an increased load, in other words, a muscle freed more energy when resistance to its contraction was greater. Also, when a muscle was fatigued, it had the ability to work more economically. Heidenhain's research also dealt with the study of heat production during muscular activity. He was able to detect and measure a small increase of temperature during the slightest muscular movement.

Other contributions

Heidenhain did extensive research concerning the secretory and absorption processes of glands. He studied the stomach's gastric glands and the processes it used to produce pepsin and hydrochloric acid. The eponymous demilunes of Heidenhain were described by him. These are half-moon shaped cellular structures associated with the salivary glands.
Heidenhain conducted scientific studies of hypnotism, having been impressed by the public hypnotist, Carl Hansen. His research was from a physiological basis, and he explained hypnosis in terms of inhibition of the cortex. Later, Ivan Pavlov carried on Heidenhain's physiological studies of hypnosis.

Written works