Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz

Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz was a German anatomist, born in 1836 and dead in 1921, who gave biology two words still in daily use, neuron and chromosome. In a series of papers in the Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift he gathered the silver-stain findings of Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramon y Cajal into the neuron theory, the view that the nervous system is built from separate nerve cells, and he coined the term neuron for that unit. Cajal himself noted that Waldeyer added no personal observation but lent the theory his authority and a fortunate name. In 1888 Waldeyer named the chromosome, building on Walther Flemming's study of the threads seen in dividing cells. Anatomical structures named after him include Waldeyer's tonsillar ring and Waldeyer's glands of the eyelids, and he did pioneering work on the development of teeth and hair.