PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY OF CELLS AND TISSUES

Abstract

BUT little more than a century has seen the rise of modern biology founded upon the cell as the unit of structure in living organisms. E. B. Wilson divided the period which has elapsed since the emergence of the so-called cell theory in 1840 into three parts-the first to 1870 saw the establishment of the principles of genetic continuity, and in the second the more detailed examination of cellular inclusions and of cellular embryology proceeded apace. During this period similarities in the cytological behaviour of cells from diverse organisms, together with the great generalizations concerning the mechanism of organic evolution, both testified to the underlying unity of living organisms and served to maintain coherence in what might otherwise have seemed to be an impossibly diffuse body of biological data. From 1900 onwards it has been the Mendelian era-the study of cells, and again, through the happy combination of cytology, the study of cellular form and structure, and the study of behaviour as revealed by genetics, there has emerged the familiar but impressive generalizations which in their application extend over the whole field of biology. Physical Chemistry of Cells and Tissues By Rudolf Hober, with the collaboration of David I. Hitchcock, J. B. Bateman, David R. Goddard and Wallace O. Fenn. Pp. 676. (Philadelphia, Pa.: Blakiston Company, 1945.) 9 dollars.