E.F.W. Pflüger, the most prominent general physiologist of his time, founded Archiv für die gesamte Physiologie (Archives of All Physiology), a scholarly journal better known simply as Pflügers Archiv, in 1868. He contributed significantly to most subfields of physiology, especially physiological chemistry, embryological physiology, metabolism, and respiratory physiology.

Pflüger was born in Hanau am Main, Germany, the son of an activist leftist politician from whom he probably inherited his combative temperament. Both Pflügers got into trouble in 1849, as the 1848 revolutions failed, but while the father was unrepentant, the son, then a student at the University of Heidelberg, lost interest in politics, quit his pursuit of a law degree, and began instead to study medicine. He was a medical student at the University of Marburg from 1850 to 1851, earned his first M.D. at the University of Giessen in...