Biology and Its Makers / With Portraits and Other Illustrations

by William A. Locy

Schleiden fastened these errors upon the cell-theory, since Schwann relied upon his observations. On another point of prime importance Schleiden was wrong: he regarded all new cell-formation as the formation of "cells within cells," as distinguished from cell-division, as we now know it to take place.

Schleiden made no attempt to elaborate his views into a comprehensive cell-theory, and therefore his connection as a co-founder of this great generalization is chiefly in paving the way and giving the suggestion to Schwann, which enabled the latter to establish the theory. Schleiden's paper occupies some thirty-two pages, and is illustrated by two plates. He was thirty-four years old when this paper was published, and directly afterward was called to the post of adjunct professor of botany in the University of Jena, a position which with promotion to the full professorship he occupied for twenty-three years.

Schwann's Treatise.—In 1838, Schwann also announced his cell-theory in a concise form in a German scientific periodical, and, later, to the Paris Academy of Sciences; but it was not till 1839 that the fully illustrated account was published. This treatise with the cumbersome title, "Microscopical Researches into the Accordance in the Structure and Growth of Animals and Plants" (Mikroscopische Untersuchungen über die Uebereinstimmung in der Structur und dem Wachsthum der Thiere und Pflanzen) takes rank as one of the great classics in biology. It fills 215 octavo pages, and is illustrated with four plates.

"The purpose of his researches was to prove the identity of structure, as shown by their development, between animals and plants." This is done by direct comparisons of the elementary parts in the two kingdoms of organic nature.

His writing in the "Microscopical Researches" is clear and philosophical, and is divided into three sections, in the first two of which he confines himself strictly to descriptions of observations, and in the third part of which he enters upon a philosophical discussion of the significance of the observations. He comes to the conclusion that "the elementary parts of all tissues are formed of cells in an analogous, though very diversified manner, so that it may be asserted that there is one universal principle of development for the elementary parts of organisms, however different, and that this principle is the formation of cells."

It was in this treatise also that he made use of the term cell-theory, as follows: "The development of the proposition that there exists one general principle for the formation of all organic productions, and that this principle is the formation of cells, as well as the conclusions which may be drawn from this proposition, may be comprised under the term cell-theory, using it in its more extended signification, while, in a more limited sense, by the theory of cells we understand whatever may be inferred from this proposition with respect to the powers from which these phenomena result."

One comes from the reading of these two contributions to science with the feeling that it is really Schwann's cell-theory, and that Schleiden helped by lighting the way that his fellow-worker so successfully trod.

Modification of the Cell-Theory.—The form in which the cell-theory was given to the world by Schleiden and Schwann was very imperfect, and, as already pointed out, it contained fundamental errors. The founders of the theory attached too much importance to the cell-wall, and they described the cell as a hollow cavity bounded by walls that were formed around a nucleus. They were wrong as to the mode of the development of the cell, and as to its nature. Nevertheless, the great truth that all parts of animals and plants are built of similar units or structures was well substantiated. This remained a permanent part of the theory, but all ideas regarding the nature of the units were profoundly altered.

In order to perceive the line along which the chief modifications were made we must take account of another scientific advance of about the same period. This was the discovery of protoplasm, an achievement which takes rank with the advances of greatest importance in biology, and has proved to be one of the great events of the nineteenth century.