1 64 THEHISTORYOFBIOLOGY 



construction of the fruit substance and the germination of the seed in a 

 number of plants, but in doing so he employs a terminology of his own, 

 nor does he borrow anything from animal anatomy; the word "paren- 

 chyma," which he invented, has been retained in vegetable anatomy. He 

 describes plants organ by organ; cells and vessels in the stem he discovered 

 independently of Malpighi and on the whole describes the anatomical details 

 more soberly and in greater detail, though with less fertility of ideas, than 

 the latter. He advanced a theory that the pistil in plants corresponds to the 

 female, and the stamen, with its pollen, to the male, and pointed out their 

 hermaphroditism, but, on the other hand, he entered into speculations upon 

 male and female ' ' juices ' ' in plants, which are of no interest nowadays except 

 from the point of view of mere curiosity. He voluntarily abandoned in favour 

 of Malpighi any claim to priority in regard to the discovery of the vascular 

 system in plants; on the other hand, Malpighi undertook a Latin translation 

 of Grew's writings. These two scientists improved vegetable anatomy so 

 far it was to take more than a century before any important addition could 

 be made to their work. Through them biology acquired its knowledge of 

 organized matter as being something peculiar in its structure; the idea of 

 tissue was established — for the time being, it is true, only in the sphere 

 of botany — and in the vegetable kingdom, also, the simple elements of the 

 tissues — the cells — were observed and described. It was, however, to be 

 nearly two centuries before the fundamental value of these achievements was 

 fully appreciated; true, both their contemporaries and the immediately suc- 

 ceeding age admired the exactness of their investigations, but it considered 

 the results more from the point of view of curiosity. All the greater admira- 

 tion is due to those scientists who at any rate guessed that here was to hand 

 information of the highest importance for the future of science. The fact 

 that their contemporaries failed to continue along the line they had laid 

 down was undoubtedly due mostly to the microscope's having at the same 

 time opened up a field in the sphere of animal anatomy of such considerable 

 scope and of greater immediate interest. The anatomy of the lower animals 

 in particular was an entirely unexploited field, possessing vast possibilities 

 for development, of which, indeed, splendid advantage was taken just about 

 that time. 



Antony van Leeuwenhoek was born in 1631 at Delft in Holland and was 

 sent as a boy to Amsterdam to be trained for business. Having worked for 

 a time in the cloth trade, he returned to his native town and got an appoint- 

 ment with the municipal authorities,^ which must have taken up very little 

 of his time, since he was able to devote the greater part of his days to indulg- 

 ing his interest in the study of nature. As a research-worker Leeuwenhoek 



^ His title was " Kamerbewarer der Kamer van Heerea Schepen van Delft." 



