Book Description

Excerpt from The Cell: Outlines of General Anatomy and Physiology "Each living being must be considered a microcosm, a small universe, which is formed from a collection of organisms, which reproduce themselves, which are extremely small, and which are as numerous as the stars in heaven." Darivin. A Glance at the numerous text-books on histology shows us that many questions of great interest in scientific investigation are scarcely mentioned in them, whilst many branches of knowledge which are closely connected with histology are more or less excluded. The student is taught the microscopic appearances which are presented by the cell and the tissues, after these have been prepared according to the different methods which are most suitable to each, but he is taught very little of the vital properties of the cell, or of the marvellous forces which may be said to slumber in the small cell-organism, and which are revealed to us by the phenomena of protoplasmic movements, of irritability, of metabolism, and of reproduction. With regard to the different subjects which he studies, if he wish to be in touch with the progress of science, and to understand the nature and attributes of the cell-organism, he must read the works of specialists. It is not difficult to discover the reason for this; it is chiefly due to the division of what was previously one subject into two, namely, into anatomy and physiology. This sub-division has been extended to the cell, and, it seems to me, with rather unfortunate results; for the separation which, in spite of the many disadvantages which are naturally attached to it, is in many respects a necessity in the investigation of the human body as a whole, is not practicable in the study of cells, and has in reality only brought about the result, that the physiology of the cell has been dogmatically treated as a part of descriptive anatomy, rather than as a science, and that in consequence much that the diligence of scientists has brought to light is barren of results. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.