Hundert Jahre Zellforschung

Abstract

BEFORE he can come near to understanding the complicated structures and immense variety of form encountered in the living world, the natural scientist has to reduce them to their simple ultimate components. These elementary units should be able to live by themselves, and also to combine with each other to produce more and more complex systems. The search for the fundamental unit of living matter was greatly influenced by the thought of Leibniz, while Brown, Bichat and Purkinje among others looked for such components. It was not, however, until Schleiden put forward his cell theory in 1839 that general agreement as to the nature of the elementary unit was reached. Schleiden's theory provided both a sound basis and a guiding principle for the study of the microscopic structure of plants, which were soon applied to normal animal tissue by Schwann, and to pathological material by Virchow. The cell theory thus gave a new and vigorous impetus to microscopic investigation, as well as leading to the development of specialized techniques. Hundert Jahre Zellforschung Von L. Aschoff E. Kuster W. J. Schmidt. (Protoplasma-Monographien, Band 17.) Pp. x + 285. (Berlin: Gebruder Borntraeger, 1938.) 16 gold marks.