THE CELL THEORY 



2 39 



appear, are yet composed of comparatively few elementary 

 parts, frequently repeated"; but we are not especially con- 

 cerned with the remote history of the idea, so much as with 

 the principal steps in its development after the beginning of 

 microscopical observations. 



Pictures of Cells in the Seventeenth Century.- -The 

 sketches illustrating the microscopic observations of Malpighi, 



FIG. 73. Sketch from Malpighi's Treatise on the Anatomy of 



Plants (1670). 



Leeuwenhoek, and Grew show so many pictures of the cel- 

 lular construction of plants that one who views them for the 

 first time is struck with surprise, and might readily exclaim: 

 'Here in the seventeenth century we have the foundation of 

 the cell-theory." But these drawings were merely faithful 

 representations of the appearance of the fabric of plants; 



