Busk on Starch-Granules. 
61 
him in order to investigate the structure of the starch-granule, 
He placed a certain number of the grains upon a clean piece 
of glass, and added a minute drop of water, and, upon the 
grains thus separated from each other, he placed two more 
drops of water. The water was then dissipated by the appli- 
cation of heat for about a minute. He then noticed that the 
starch-granules had lost their rotundity and degenerated into 
plane figures of unequal size. From this experiment he con- 
cluded that the starch-grains of wheat, and other plants 
examined by him, were covered, like the wheat-grains them- 
selves, by a cuticle. And he imagined that the incurvation 
of the starch-granule took place at that part only, where the 
cuticle, not being continuous, was joined by a sort of com- 
missure — whence, he conceived it arose, that the granules, 
being heated and moistened, dehisced, and sank down into a 
flat form. He gives numerous figures of various sorts of 
starch in different stages, from partial expansion to complete 
evolution. 
We have here apparently the basis of the cellular hypothesis 
of starch, afterwards more fully developed by Raspail and 
others. Leeuwenhoeck, however, does not appear to have re- 
garded the contents of the starch-cell as fluid ; and in this he 
was obviously more correct than his modern followers. But 
as Raspail's view, in its integrity, is no longer maintained, I 
believe, by any one, having been long ago given up even by 
his more immediate followers, and particularly by Payen and 
Persoz, it is needless further to advert to it. The later modi- 
fication also of it advocated by Munter and Nageli, though 
with more scientific pretensions, is still so diametrically 
opposed to what may perhaps now be considered the correct 
doctrine of vegetable cell-formation, as in my opinion to be 
totally inadmissible. 
Following in the footsteps of Leeuwenhoeck, Dr. S. Reissek* 
attempts to deduce the cell-nature of the amylum-granules 
from the phenomena presented during their decay or disso- 
lution, when left for some time in water. He says that, " owing 
to the solution and exosmosis of their internal and more solid 
substance (in contradiction to Schleiden and Munter), they 
become hollow, so that of the entire starch-granule only the 
outermost layer remains, which, having become soft and 
flexible, assumes the appearance of a closed sacculus, that is, 
of a cell." He therefore regards the amylum-granule as a 
perfect cell. 
* Keissek, Haidinger's * Berichten iib. d. Mittheil. von Frennden d. 
Naturwissen. in Wien.' Mai— Oct. 1846. Wien, 1847, p. 84. 
