THE INADEQUACY OF THE CELL-THEORY OF 



DEVELOPMENT.! 



C. O. WHITMAN. 



The doctrine of Schleiden and Schwann that in cell-formation 

 lies the whole secret of organic development, has held the place 

 of a central axiom in biological work and speculation for over 

 half a century. All this time the cell has been, as it were, the 

 alpha and omega of both morphological and physiological 

 research. Regarded as a primary element of structure, it has 

 come to signify in the organic world what the atom and mole- 

 cule signify in the physical world. 



The traditional cell-standpomt has been most exactly defined 

 by Schleiden and Schwann. In his celebrated " Beitrage zur 

 Phytogenesis " (Miiller's Archiv, 1838), Schleiden sets forth 

 the cell-doctrine, which he limited to plants, in the following 

 words : ^^ Each cell leads a double life ; an independent one, 

 pertaining to its own developmejit alone ; and another inci- 

 dental, in so far as it has become an integral part of a plant T 



"The entire plant appears to live only for and through the 

 elementary organ " (cell). 



Schwann, in his classical Researches of 1839, extends the 

 same view to the entire organic world. 



"Each cell,'' he affirms, "is, within certain limits, an individ- 

 ual, an independent whole. The vital phenomena of one are 

 repeated, entirely or in part, in all the rest. These individuals , 

 however, are not ranged side by side as a mere aggregate, but 

 so operate together, in a majiner unknown to us, as to produce 

 an harmonious zvJiole.'' (Introduction, p. 2.) 



" The ivJiole organism subsists only by means of the recipro- 

 cal action of the single elementary parts!' (Theory of cells, 

 p. 191.) 



The method of reasoning is precisely the same as we have 

 seen in some of the latest experimental studies on cleavage. 

 Witness the following : " If we find that some of these 



' Read Aug. 31, at the Zoological Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition. 



lo'^^ 



