Biology and Its Makers / With Portraits and Other Illustrations

by William A. Locy

Dufour.—Léon Dufour extended the work of Straus-Dürckheim by publishing, between 1831 and 1834, researches upon the anatomy and physiology of different families of insects. His aim was to found a general science of insect anatomy. That he was unsuccessful in accomplishing this was owing partly to the absence of embryology and histology from his method of study.

Newport.—The thing most needed now was not greater devotion to details and a willingness to work, but a broadening of the horizon of ideas. This arrived in the Englishman Newport, who was remarkable not only for his skill as a dissector, but for his recognition of the importance of embryology in elucidating the problems of structure. His article "Insecta" in Todd's Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, in 1841, and his papers in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society contain this new kind of research. Von Baer had founded embryology by his great work on the development of animals in 1828, before the investigations of Dufour, but it was reserved for Newport to recognize its great importance and to apply it to insect anatomy. He saw clearly that, in order to comprehend his problems, the anatomist must take into account the process of building the body, as well as the completed architecture of the adult. The introduction of this important idea made his achievement a distinct advance beyond that of his predecessors.

Fig. 30.—Nervous System of the Cockchafer. (From Straus-Dürckheim's Monograph, 1828.)

Leydig.—Just as Newport was publishing his conclusions the cell-theory was established (in 1838-39); and this was destined to furnish the basis for a new advance. The influence of the doctrine that all tissues are composed of similar vital units, called cells, was far-reaching. Investigators began to apply the idea in all directions, and there resulted a new department of anatomy, called histology. The subject of insect histology was an unworked field, but manifestly one of importance. Franz Leydig (for portrait see p. 175) entered the new territory with enthusiasm, and through his extensive investigations all structural studies upon insects assumed a new aspect. In 1864 appeared his Vom Bau des Thierchen Körpers, which, together with his special articles, created a new kind of insect anatomy based upon the microscopic study of tissues. The application of this method of investigation is easy to see; just as it is impossible to understand the working of a machine without a knowledge of its construction, so a knowledge of the working units of an organ is necessary to comprehend its action. For illustration, it is perfectly evident that we can not understand what is taking place in an organ for receiving sensory impressions without first understanding its mechanism and the nature of the connections between it and the central part of the nervous system. The sensory organ is on the surface in order more readily to receive impressions from the outside world. The sensory cells are also modifications of surface cells, and, as a preliminary step to understanding their particular office, we must know the line along which they have become modified to fit them to receive stimulation.

Then, if we attempt to follow in the imagination the way by which the surface stimulations reach the central nervous system and affect it, we must investigate all the connections. It thus appears that we must know the intimate structure of an organ in order to understand its physiology. Leydig supplied this kind of information for many organs of insects. In his investigations we see the foundation of that delicate work upon the microscopic structure of insects which is still going forward.

Summary.—In this brief sketch we have seen that the study of insect anatomy, beginning with that of Malpighi and Swammerdam, was lifted to a plane of greater exactitude by Lyonet and Straus-Dürckheim. It was further broadened by the researches of Dufour, and began to take on its modern aspects, first, through the labors of Newport, who introduced embryology as a feature of investigation, and, finally, through Leydig's step in introducing histology. In the combination of the work of these two observers, the subject for the first time reached its proper position.

The studies of minute structure in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were by no means confined to insects; investigations were made upon a number of other forms. Trembley, in the time of Lyonet, produced his noteworthy memoirs upon the small fresh-water hydra (Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire des polypes d'eau douce, 1744); the illustrations for which, as already stated, were prepared by Lyonet. The structure of snails and other mollusks, of tadpoles, frogs, and other batrachia, was also investigated. We have seen that Swammerdam, in the seventeenth century, had begun observations upon the anatomy of tadpoles, frogs, and snails, and also upon the minute crustacea commonly called water-fleas, which are just large enough to be distinguished by the unaided eye. We should remember also that in the same period the microscopic structure of plants began to be investigated, notably by Grew, Malpighi, and Leeuwenhoek (see Chapter IV).

In addition to those essays into minute anatomy, in which scalpel and scissors were employed, an endeavor of more subtle difficulty made its appeal; there were forms of animal life of still smaller size and simpler organization that began to engage the attention of microscopists. A brief account of the discovery and subsequent observation of these microscopic animalcula will now occupy our attention.