?3& BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 



As long ago as 1665 Robert Hooke, the great English 

 microscopist, observed the cellular construction of cork, and 

 described it as made up of " little boxes or cells distinguished 

 from one another." He made sketches of the appearance of 

 this plant tissue; and, inasmuch as the drawings of Hooke 

 are the earliest ones made of cells, they possess especial in- 



Fig. 72. — The Earliest Known Picture of Cells from Hooke's 

 Micrographia (1665). From the edition of 1780. 



teres t and consequently are reproduced here. Fig. 72, taken 

 from the Micrographia, shows this earliest drawing of Hooke. 

 He made thin sections with a sharp penknife; "and upon 

 examination they were found to be all cellular or porous in 

 the manner of a honeycomb, but not so regular." 



We must not completely overlook the fact that Aristotle 

 (384-322 B.C.) and Galen (130-200 a.d.), those profound 

 thinkers on anatomical structure, had reached the theoretical 

 position ''that animals and plants, complex as they may 



