Purkinje, Jan Evangelista

Purkinje, Jan Evangelista

Purkinje

(credit: CTK-Czechoslovak News Agency)

(born Dec. 17, 1787, Libochovice, Bohemia—died July 28, 1869, Prague, Czech.) Czech experimental physiologist. He discovered the Purkinje effect (as light decreases, red objects appear to fade faster than blue ones), Purkinje cells (large branching neurons in the cerebellum), and Purkinje fibres (which conduct impulses from the natural pacemaker throughout the heart). At Breslau he created the world's first independent physiology department and first official physiology laboratory. He introduced the term protoplasm, devised new methods for preparing microscope samples, discovered the skin's sweat glands and the nucleus of the unripe ovum, recognized the uniqueness of fingerprints, and noted that pancreatic extracts digest protein.