CHAPTER II 



THE CELL ITS PARTS PROTOPLASM AND ITS CHAR- 

 ACTERS-NUCLEUSCHROMOSOMESRELATIONS OF 

 NUCLEUS AND CELL PROTOPLASM 



IN 1651 William Harvey, the great English natur- 

 alist and physician, in his work De Generatione 

 Animalium, laid down the axiom Omne vivum ex 

 ovo. This generalisation has since been shown to 

 have lacked complete accuracy, since certain living 

 things propagate themselves by fission. But if we 

 alter it to read Omne vivum ex vivo we arrive at a 

 statement which is now generally accepted by the 

 scientific world, though it has been strenuously 

 opposed and is still contested by a few as will be 

 more fully described in the chapter dealing with 

 abiogenesis. Second only in importance to this 

 generalisation is that which Virchow proclaimed in 

 1858, Omuls cellula ex cellula. From that time the 

 study of the cell has absorbed the attention of 

 scores of workers and especially of late years has 

 developed an enormous literature entirely its own. 

 Nor is this wonderful when one remembers the 

 remarkable results which have followed upon this 



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