who first theorized that the human body was made up cells?
In 1824, Rene Dutrochet discovered that “the cell is the fundamental element in the structure of living bodies, forming both animals and plants through juxtaposition.” However, the first sightings of the internal action of the cell were made by Robert Brown. In Berlin, Johannes Muller created connections between biology and medicine, prompting the connective thinking of his students, such as those of Theodore Schwann. Schwann created the term “cell theory” and declared that plants consisted of cells. This declaration was made after that of Matthias Schlieden’s (1804 – 1881) that animals are composed of cells. Leeuwenhoek was first to describe cells and coined the word more than 100 years before, but he didn’t really make the leap to how fundamental the unit was.
