30 THE CELL DOCTRINE. 



united, that one can scarcely tell in what class to 

 place them. The contents of the cell may he more 

 or less solid, but the highest degree of vitality is 

 only compatihle with liquid cell contents. Muscular 



fibres, and the remaining animal fibres, are cells much 

 elongated. And he considers the same general plan to 

 prevail in the animal and vegetable. The approach of 



Hboth of these observers to the truth is striking. 

 Both, however, either failed to detect the nucleus or 

 to attach any importance to it. They failed also to 

 lay down a law of organic development, and their 

 views were soon forgotten. 



-y Discovery of the Nucleus, 1833. — A most important 

 contribution to the anatomy of the cell was made be- 

 fore this, however, in the discovery of the "nucleus," 

 by Dr. Robert Brown, of Edinburgh, whose paper, 

 " Organs and Mode of Fecundation in Orchidese and 

 Asclepiadese," appeared in the Transactions of the 

 Linneau Society of London, in 1 833. He failed, how- 

 ever, to appreciate its importance, though its dis- 



j covery was another fact added to those necessary to 

 complete the data on which has been founded the 

 so-called " cell theory." 



Meyen, 1836. — Meyen* sought to establish the 

 opinion that the cell is formed of spiral fibres which 

 lie closely upon one another, founding his view upon 

 his own observation. 



Since the discovery of the nucleus, by Dr. Robert 

 Brown, in the vegetable cell, it had been recognized 

 by many observers in various pathological, as well as 



* Meyen, Pflanzenphysiologie, Bd. i, 1886. 



