and Laboratory Methods. 130" 



GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY. 



Raymond Pearl. 



Books and papers for review should be sent to Raymond Pearl, Zoological 

 Laboratory, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. 



Schenck, F. Physiologische Charakeristik der This work aims to determine in how 

 Zelle. Wiirzburg, A. Stuber's Verlag (C. , ,, ,, , . , , ,, , 



Kabitzsch). 8vo, pp. viii and 123, 1899. ^^r the cell may be considered a " phys- 

 iological unit " or " elemental organ- 

 ism," and, having settled this point, to examine the real physiological signifi- 

 cance of the cell and its parts. The method taken is a critical examination and 

 analysis of a considerable part of the important literature bearing on the subject. 

 The author is strongly opposed to the view that the cell presents the simplest 

 condition of life phenomena, and that a physiological study of the cell ought to 

 precede, and form a basis for the " organ physiology " of higher animals. 

 Nearly a third of the book is occupied with a criticism of this view, the criticism 

 being mainly directed towards Verworn. The principal points made in this por- 

 tion of the work are : 1. That all cells are not capable of independent existence 

 and hence are not physiological individuals. '2. That since some multicellular 

 forms are physiological individuals, this sort of individuality must be independ- 

 ent of the formation of the organism out of cells. 3. That in a multicellular or- 

 ganism the cells are in organic connection with one another by means of proto- 

 plasmic strands and that, therefore, the whole must be considered as the individ- 

 ual. 4. That the study of the contraction phenomena in unicellular animals 

 does not lead to any better understanding of the contractility of muscle, and 

 furthermore that, in all probability, the phenomena are simpler and lend them- 

 selves more readily to analysis in the latter than in the former case. 



The more distinctly constructive contributions have as their purpose to find 

 whether the whole cell or only parts of it are necessary in the carrying on of the 

 fundamental life processes. These processes are discussed under four heads. 

 The first to be considered is the relation of the cell to " physiological combus- 

 tion " or oxidation, and to the phenomena which primarily depend upon the oxi- 

 dation of the living substance. The author makes citations from the literature 

 which show, according to his belief, that movement, processes of dissimilation, 

 electrical phenomena, irritability, etc., may take place in enucleated cell frag- 

 ments. He concludes that " physiological combustion " does not depend upon 

 the combined action of all the parts of the cell, and, therefore, that so far as this 

 process is concerned the cellular structure of the organism is without significance. 

 The next processes to be considered are those of assimilation, growth and mor- 

 phogenesis. The point brought out here is that, while enucleated protoplasm is 

 capable to some slight extent of carrying on the processes of assimilation, growth 

 and regeneration, yet these processes can only go on continuously when both the 

 characteristic cell parts, nucleus and cytoplasm, act together. It is maintained, 

 however, that the cell is dependent in its formative activity on the whole organ- 

 ism of which it is a part. The division of labor between nucleus and cytoplasm 



