THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[TfflRD SERIES.] 



" perlitora spargite museum, 



Naiades, et circilm vitreos considite fontes : 

 Pollice virgineo teneros hic carpite fiores : 

 Floribus et pictum, divse, replete canistrum. 

 At vos, o Nymphje Craterides, ite sub undas ; 

 Ite, recurvato variata corallia trunco 

 Vellite muscosis e rupibus, et mihi conchas 

 Ferte, Des pelagi, et pingui conchylia succo." 



N, Parthenii Giannettasii Eel. 1. 



No. 67. JULY 1863. 



I. — On some Phenomena of the Development of the Organic Cell. 

 By Prof. H. Karsten*. 



[Plate L] 



1 HE physics of the development and of the life of the cell, 

 as the basis of all anatomy and physiology, constitute the first 

 problem to be solved in both those sciences. Since Schwann 

 declared that both animal and vegetable tissues consist of cells 

 originally of a like nature, the similarity also in function of such 

 cells both in animals and plants has been rendered more and 

 more evident, 



A clear perception of the whole of the physico-chemical phe- 

 nomena which by their union constitute life will only be attained 

 by an accurate knowledge of the origin and growth of the cell. 



The formative elements of the cells which unite to constitute 

 organic tissues have been largely investigated since the time 

 when Robert Brown indicated the presence of a nucleus in nu- 

 merous cells, and since I demonstrated that the cell-wall, pre- 

 viously regarded as a single sac, consists in reality of several 

 endogenous superimposed laminse (Karsten, De Cella vitali, 

 ]843). 



* Translated by Dr. Ai'lidge from a separate impression from Poggen- 

 dorff's ' Annalen' (vol. cxviii., Berlin, 1863), for the communication of which 

 we are indebted to the author. 



Ann. ^ Mag. N, Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. xii. 1 



