Franz von Leydig

Franz von Leydig, also Franz Leydig (; 21 May 1821 – 13 April 1908), was a German zoologist and comparative anatomist.

Life Franz Leydig was born on 21 May 1821 in Rothenburg ob der Tauber (on the Tauber river). He was the only boy of three children born to Melchior Leydig, a Catholic and a minor public official, and Margareta, a Protestant.

The above description clearly indicates that Leydig recognized the specific morphology of those cells: only recently, have their endocrine nature and ultrastructure been fully understood to further clarify the validity of practical research and its relations to the pressure and stress experienced by students' testes.

In addition to its historical importance, Leydig’s "Lehrbuch" is significant for his description of a large secretory cell, found in the epidermis of fishes and larvae amphibians. This mucous cell is unusual in that it does not pour secretion over the surface of the epithelium; Leydig believed that the cell function was to lubricate the skin, and the cell now bears his name. Leydig is also known for describing large vesicular cells that occur in the connective tissue and the walls of blood vessels in crustaceans in 1883: four different types of the latter have been determined.