The cell : outlines of general anatomy and physiology / by Dr. Oscar Hertwig ; translated by M. Campbell, and edited by Henry Johnstone Campbell.

  • Hertwig, Oscar, 1849-1922.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The cell : outlines of general anatomy and physiology / by Dr. Oscar Hertwig ; translated by M. Campbell, and edited by Henry Johnstone Campbell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    not likely to meet with much support. For on many accounts it seems to be-true that the structural elements of protoplasm, whether they form the threads of a net, or the lamellee of a honey- comb, or granules, or what not, must be solid in their nature. Protoplasm does not consist of two non-miscible fluids, such as water and oil, but of a combination of solid organic particles with a large quantity of water. Hence quite different physical condi- tions are necessarily present. (Compare section on molecular structure, p. 58.) The third of the above-mentioned views, or the filament theory, is connected with the name of Flemming (II. 10). Whilst examining a large number of living cells (cartilage, liver, connective tissue, and ganglion cells, etc.), Flemming observed in the protoplasm (Fig. 6) the presence of extremely delicate threads which have somewhat greater refractive power than the inter- vening ground substance. These threads vary in length, being longer in some cells than in others; sometimes larger numbers are present than at others. It seemed im- possible to determine with certainty whether they are separated from one another all along their length, or whether they join together to form a net; if they do form a net, then its meshes must be very uneven in size. Hence Flemming considers that two different substances occur in proto- plasm, a thread substance and an inter- stitial substance, or a filamentous and an interfilamentous substance (mitome and paramitome) ; upon the chemical nature of these substances and upon their general condition Flemming does not enlarge. How much importance should be attached to this structure, about which at present nothing further can be stated, it remains for the future to reveal. In this section, On the Structure of Protoola^m th* ™^ vi nucleus, or the striated appearance which is exhibited h„ ,1, 0n, tte secretory celis, might be more lullv described Si™. I ' P™^»™ of det T' Um,Tedal ™m™' »^^ÄTÄT defer their consideration to a later period. aavibable to Fourthly, and finally, come the attempts of Altmann (II. 1) to Fig. 6.—Living cartilage cell of a Salamander larva, much mag- nified, with clearly marked fila- mentous substance : after Flem- ming (from Hatschek, Big. 2).