Historical Development of the Cell Theory

  • Jan 1, 1200

    Roger Bacon used a convex lens as magnifying glass

    Roger Bacon used a convex lens as magnifying glass
  • Period: Jan 1, 1200 to

    Historical Development of the Cell Theory

  • Jan 1, 1485

    Leonardo da Vinci used glass lenses to study small objects

  • Two spectacle-makers, Hans and Zacharias Janssen, constructed the first compound microscope using two lenses inside a tube

  • Robert Hooke further developed the compound microscope, including the use of the iris diaphragm. Hooke kept a detailed record of his observations. He first described cells in his description of a slice of cork under the microscope. He described it as 'all

  • Anton van Leeuwenhoek described unicellular organisms from his observations of a drop of stagnant rainwater as 'animalcules'. Leeuwenhoek also soaked some peppercorns in water for several days. When he examined a drop of this water under his microscope, h

  • Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria from his observations of saliva

  • Rene Dutrochet stated that all animals and plants are made up of cells

  • Robert Brown noted that the cells of orchids he was observing under the microscope contained a structure inside the cell. He called this the 'nucleus'

  • Matthias Schleiden and Theodor Schwann formulated the cell theory that all living matter is composed of small units called cells

  • Rudolf Virchow stated that 'where a cell exists there must have been a pre-existing cell, just as the animal arises only from an animal and the plant only from a plant'

  • Ernst Ruska built the first electron microscope. Transmission electron microscopes and scanning electron microscopes were developed in the following decades. Details of internal cell structures were revealed