Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
Crystals of spermine phosphate were first described in 1678, in human semen, by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. The name "spermin" was first used by the German chemists Ladenburg and Abel in 1888, and the correct structure of spermine was not finally established until 1926, simultaneously in England (by Dudley, Rosenheim, and Starling) and Germany (by Wrede et al.). Spermine is the chemical primarily responsible for the characteristic odor of semen.