In 1866, Moritz Traube of Breslau discovered the osmotic properties of certain chemical precipitates. As I pointed out in the Revue Scientifique of March 1906, Traube made the first artificial cell, and studied the osmotic properties of membranes and their mode of production. This remarkable research should have been the starting-point of synthetic biology. The only result, however, was to give rise to numberless objections, and it soon fell into complete oblivion. "There are," says Traube, "a number of persons quite blind to all progress, who in the presence of a new discovery think only of the objections which may be brought against it." The works of Traube have been collected and published by his son (Gesammelte Abhandlungen von Moritz Traube, 1899).
In 1867 there appeared in England a paper by Dr. E. Montgomery, of St. Thomas's Hospital, On the Formation of so-called Cells in Animal Bodies. This paper, published by Churchill & Sons, is a most interesting contribution and one of great originality. The author says: "There can be no compromise between the tenets of the cell theory and the conclusions arrived at in this paper; the distinction is thorough. Either the units of which an organism is composed owe their origin to some kind or other of procreation, a mysterious act of that mysterious entity life, by which, in addition to their material properties, they become endowed with those peculiar metaphysical powers constituting vitality. Or, on the other hand, the organic units, like the crystalline units of inorganic bodies, form the organism by dint of similar inherent qualities, form in fact a living being possessed of all its inherent properties, as soon as certain chemical compounds are placed under certain physical conditions. If the former opinion be
true, then we must clearly understand that there exists naturally a break in the sequence of evolution, a chasm between the organic and the inorganic world never to be bridged over. If, on the contrary, the latter view be correct, then it strongly argues for a continuity of development, a gradual chemical elaboration, which culminates in those high compounds which, under surrounding influences, manifest those complex changes called vital.
"Surely it is not a matter of indifference or of mere words, if the extreme aim of physiology avowedly be the detection of the different functions dependent on the vital exertions of a variety of ultimate organisms, and the discovery of the specific stimulants which naturally incite these functions into play. Or, on the other hand, if it be understood to consist rather in the careful investigation of the succession of chemical differentiations and their accompanying physical changes, which give rise to the formation of a variety of tissues that are found to possess certain specific properties, to display certain definite actions due to a further flow of chemical and physical modifications."
In 1871 there appeared a memoir by the Dutch savant Harting entitled Recherche de Morphologie synthetique sur la production artificielle de quelques formations calcaires organiques. This memoir, says Professor R. Dubois, had cost Harting more than thirty years of work. "Synthetic morphology is yet only in its infancy, let us hope that in a time equal to that which has already expired since the first artificial production of urea, it will have made a progress equal to that of its older sister, synthetic chemistry."
In the Comptes Rendues of 1882 is the following note by D. Monnier and Karl Vogt:—
"1. Figured forms presenting all the characteristics of organic growth, cells, porous canals, tubes with partition walls, and heterogeneous granules, may be produced artificially in appropriate liquids by the mutual action of two salts which form one or more insoluble salts by double decomposition. One of the component salts should be in solution, while the other salt must be introduced in the solid form.
"2. Such forms of organic elements, cells, tubes, etc., may be produced either in an organic liquid or a semi-organic liquid such as sucrate of lime, or in an absolutely inorganic liquid such as silicate of soda. Thus there can no longer be any question of distinctive forms as characterizing organic bodies in contradistinction to inorganic bodies.
"3. The figured elements of these pseudo-organic forms depend on the nature, the viscosity, and the concentration of the liquids in which they are produced. Certain viscous liquids such as solutions of gum arabic or chloride of zinc do not produce these forms.