Classics of modern science : $b (Copernicus to Pasteur)
History
Classics of modern science : $b (Copernicus to Pasteur)
Science; Science -- History
The attractive power of the cells operates so as to effect the addition
of new molecules in two ways,--first, in layers, and secondly, in such
a manner in each layer that the new molecules are deposited between
those already present. This is only an expression of the fact; the
more simple law, by which several layers are formed and the molecules
are not all deposited between those already present, cannot yet be
explained. The formation of layers may be repeated once, twice, or
thrice. The growth of the separate layers is regulated by a law,
that the deposition of new molecules should be greatest at the part
where the nutrient fluid is most concentrated. Hence the outer part
particularly becomes condensed into a membrance both in the layer
corresponding to the nucleus and in that answering to the cell, because
the nutrient fluid penetrates from without, and consequently is more
concentrated at the outer than at the inner part of each layer. For
the same reason the nucleus grows rapidly, so long as the layer of the
cell is not formed around it, but it either stops growing altogether,
or at least grows much more slowly as soon as the cell-layer has
surrounded it; because then the latter receives the nutrient matter
first, and, therefore, in a more concentrated form. And hence the cell
becomes, in a general sense, much more completely developed, while
the nucleus-layer usually remains at a stage of development, in which
the cell-layer had been in its earlier period. The addition of new
molecules is so arranged that the layers increase more considerably in
superficial extent than in thickness; and thus an intervening space
is formed between each layer and the one preceding it, by which cells
and nuclei are formed into actual hollow vesicles. From this it may be
inferred that the deposition of new molecules is more active between
those which lie side by side along the surface of the membrane, than
between those which lie one upon the other in its thickness. Were it
otherwise, each layer would increase in thickness, but there would be
no intervening cavity between it and the previous one, there would be
no vesicles, but a solid body composed of layers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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