CYTOLOGY: THE STUDY OF THE CELL 



Ralph E. Cleland 



In their efforts to learn about life and living beings, biologists have devel- 

 oped many specialties, for although they know but a tiny fraction of v/hat 

 they need to know in order to understand fully what life is and how it func- 

 tions, the sum total of biological knowledge is already far too extensive and 

 complex for any one man to grasp it all. And so, some biologists have con- 

 cerned themselves primarily with the identification and recognition of the 

 different kinds of organisms, others with the manifold structures which th?se 

 organisms have developed ; still others have sought to analyze their activities, 

 how they nourish themselves, grow, and reproduce, how they behave in their 

 native surroundings and under controlled conditions. 



Most of these and other specialties, however, attack the problem of the 

 nature of life only indirectly, by studying the varied manifestations of life, 

 the results of life activity. It is only by a study of that part of a living 

 organism which is itself alive (the so-called protoplasm) that one can hope 

 to gain an understanding of what life is in essence, what lies at the bottom 

 of and is responsible for the phenomena which together make up what we 

 call life. To achieve this goal, one must turn to the cell, for protoplasm 

 exists, with very few exceptions, not in large masses, but in minute units 

 which are called cells. Cytology is the study of the cell, and it is, therefore, 

 of all fields the one which comes closest to the heart of the major quest of 

 biology — the understanding of life in its essence. 



The cell is a marvelous microcosm, extremely small, yet unbelievably com- 

 plex. Although protoplasm is incomparably the most complex system known, 

 it is organized into units whose size, or lack of size, is difficult for the average 

 man to grasp. As the late Professor Sponsler (1940) has pointed out, the 

 average-sized cell has a volume about one-millionth that of the average 

 raindrop. It might seem that a unit of matter so small would be incapable of 

 containing a substance as complicated as protoplasm. The complexities of 

 protoplasm, however, are at the molecular level. It is an organized system of 



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