Biology and Its Makers: With Portraits and Other IllustrationsLocy, William A. (William Albert)
History
Biology and Its Makers: With Portraits and Other Illustrations
Locy, William A. (William Albert)
Biology -- History
He then goes on to define his view of the nucleus (cytoblast) and
of the development of the cell around it, saying: "As soon as the
cytoblasts have attained their full size, a delicate transparent
vesicle arises upon their surface. This is the young cell." As to
the position of the nucleus in the fully developed cell, he is very
explicit: "It is evident," he says, "from the foregoing that the
cytoblast can never lie free in the interior of the cell, but is always
enclosed in the cell-wall," etc.
Schleiden fastened these errors upon the cell-theory, since Schwann
relied upon his observations. On another point of prime importance
Schleiden was wrong: he regarded all new cell-formation as the
formation of "cells within cells," as distinguished from cell-division,
as we now know it to take place.
Schleiden made no attempt to elaborate his views into a comprehensive
cell-theory, and therefore his connection as a co-founder of this great
generalization is chiefly in paving the way and giving the suggestion
to Schwann, which enabled the latter to establish the theory.
Schleiden's paper occupies some thirty-two pages, and is illustrated by
two plates. He was thirty-four years old when this paper was published,
and directly afterward was called to the post of adjunct professor of
botany in the University of Jena, a position which with promotion to
the full professorship he occupied for twenty-three years.
Schwann's Treatise.--In 1838, Schwann also announced his cell-theory
in a concise form in a German scientific periodical, and, later, to
the Paris Academy of Sciences; but it was not till 1839 that the fully
illustrated account was published. This treatise with the cumbersome
title, "Microscopical Researches into the Accordance in the Structure
and Growth of Animals and Plants" (_Mikroscopische Untersuchungen über
die Uebereinstimmung in der Structur und dem Wachsthum der Thiere und
Pflanzen_) takes rank as one of the great classics in biology. It fills
215 octavo pages, and is illustrated with four plates.
"The purpose of his researches was to prove the identity of structure,
as shown by their development, between animals and plants." This is
done by direct comparisons of the elementary parts in the two kingdoms
of organic nature.
His writing in the "Microscopical Researches" is clear and
philosophical, and is divided into three sections, in the first two of
which he confines himself strictly to descriptions of observations, and
in the third part of which he enters upon a philosophical discussion
of the significance of the observations. He comes to the conclusion
that "the elementary parts of all tissues are formed of cells in an
analogous, though very diversified manner, so that it may be asserted
that there is one universal principle of development for the elementary
parts of organisms, however different, and that this principle is the
formation of cells."
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