Preface 



Cell physiology to-day is the common meeting-ground of the botanist and zoologist, 

 of the biochemist and biophysicist, of the geneticist and embryologist. In spite of the 

 ambitious field which we have attempted to cover in fifteen short papers, no excuse 

 is needed for bringing together students from so wide a range of disciplines to present 

 some of their latest work, to discuss their separate and common interests and to 

 speculate on the future of this fascinating subject. How far this aim has been success- 

 ful is only partly to be judged on the contents of this present volume; the many 

 informal groups collected between the official meetings are not the least valuable 

 feature of any symposium of this kind. 



For financial and other reasons, the geographical range of the speakers was more 

 restricted than their academic one. The Society's guests from overseas included only- 

 workers from Denmark and Belgium, both countries which have made great contri- 

 butions to cell physiology in recent years. 



In order to assist the discussion, papers were roughly grouped so that each session 

 dealt with a similar general topic. 



The opening session was concerned with the exchange of material between the 

 •cell and its environment, with particular reference to the mechanisms of active 

 transport. This topic was continued on the second day by papers on membrane 

 structure and on the ionic permeability of the nerve fibre. The metabolism of the 

 cell and certain special problems of nucleic acid synthesis were represented by three 

 papers, and the study of the nucleus was then broadened to include its role in the 

 metabolism of the cell and morphogenesis of the organism. A particularly interesting 

 session on the external synchronization of cell division was followed by a final 

 meeting in which the control of differentiation and of cell division were considered 

 as well as some new physical properties of the cell surface in Protozoa. 



The contributors to the symposium are particularly to be congratulated on the 

 broad treatment of their subject-matter, which stimulated discussion and speculation 

 in the friendly and informal atmosphere which was so characteristic of the whole 

 meeting. To this atmosphere our Danish and Belgian guests brought a spontaneity 

 and good fellowship which was only equalled by their amazing facility in the English 

 language. 



My own position as Director of the symposium has been an unexacting one of 

 privilege without responsibility. Dr. J. A. Kitching has taken the whole burden of 

 editing the manuscripts and the discussion, and thanks to him and to the co-operation 

 of all the participants, this volume has been produced in a surprisingly short time. 

 Our indebtedness to the printers and publishers is equally obvious, and gives me the 

 opportunity of paying tribute to the help of Mr. R. H. Brown, who, in his other 

 capacity as Secretary of the Colston Research Society, has been as invaluable as on 



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