[4] After studying medicine at Heidelberg and at Bonn, where he took his doctor's degree in 1832, he became prosector in anatomy to Johannes Müller at Berlin.

During the six years he spent in that position he published a large amount of work, including three anatomical monographs on new species of animals and papers on the structure of the lymphatic system, the distribution of epithelium in the human body, the structure and development of the hair, and the formation of mucus and pus.

About this period he was engaged on delineating his complete system of general anatomy, which formed the sixth volume of the new edition of Samuel Thomas von Sömmering's treatise, published at Leipzig between 1841 and 1844.

[5] In 1852, he moved to Göttingen, whence he issued three years later the first instalment of his great Handbook of Systematic Human Anatomy, the last volume of which was not published until 1873.

[5] Other anatomical and pathological findings associated with his name are:[5] Henle developed the concepts of contagium vivum and contagium animatum, respectively (Von den Miasmen und Kontagien, 1840) – thereby following ideas of Girolamo Fracastoro and the work of Agostino Bassi; thus co-founding the theory of microorganisms as the cause of infective diseases.