Career
He is best known for being the first to study freshwater polyps or hydra and for being among the first to develop experimental zoology. His mastery of experimental method has led some historians of science to cr him as the "father of biology". Trembley came from an officer"s family from Geneva, Switzerland.
Trembley acted as tutor to the children of Count Willem Bentinck (1704-1774), a prominent Dutch politician at the time.
They were 3 and 6 when Trembley, during his lessons, discovered the regenerative powers of the Hydra with the boys. Those were conducted at the Count"s summer residence of Sorgvliet nearby The Hague.
Sketches and drawings of his experiments with the children, made by Cornelis Pronk, are kept in the archives of the town of The Hague, the Netherlands. While Trembley thought he had discovered a new species, Leeuwenhoek had in fact first published on hydra in 1702-1703 volume of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, describing them as a type of "animalculum".
In his work Leeuwenhoek clearly described the process of budding, as well as tentacles contractility and the presence of cnidocyte batteries on tentacles.
Trembley"s findings were published in a groundbreaking book in 1744, Mémoires pour servir à l"histoire d"un genre de polypes d"eau douce, Gebr. Verbeek, Leiden, translated into German in 1791 as Abhandlungen zur Geschichte einer Polypenart des süssen Wassers. He was recipient of the Copley medal.
Some attribute Trembley as being the first to study stem cells, although he obviously did not refer to them as such.
Trembley did however make note of their incredible regenerative capacity.
