Name: Russel N.
De Guzman
Grade & Section: 12-ALTRUISTIC
cell theory, fundamental scientific theory of biology according to which cells are held
to be the basic units of all living tissues. First proposed by German scientists Theodor
Schwann and Matthias Jakob Schleiden in 1838, the theory that
all plants and animals are made up of cells marked a great conceptual advance in
biology and resulted in renewed attention to the living processes that go on in cells.
Robert Hooke's drawings
The history of cell theory is a history of the actual observation of cells, because
early prediction and speculation about the nature of the cell were generally
unsuccessful. The decisive event that allowed the observation of cells was the invention
of the microscope in the 16th century, after which interest in the “invisible” world was
stimulated. English physicist Robert Hooke, who described cork and other plant tissues
in 1665, introduced the term cell because the cellulose walls of dead cork cells reminded
him of the blocks of cells occupied by monks. Even after the publication in 1672 of
excellent pictures of plant tissues, no significance was attached to the contents within
the cell walls. The magnifying powers of the microscope and the inadequacy of
techniques for preparing cells for observation precluded a study of the intimate details
of the cell contents. The inspired Dutch microscopist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek,
beginning in 1673, discovered blood cells, spermatozoa, and a lively world of
“animalcules.” A new world of unicellular organisms was opened up. Such discoveries
extended the known variety of living things but did not bring insight into their basic
uniformity. Moreover, when Leeuwenhoek observed the swarming of his animalcules
but failed to observe their division, he could reinforce only the idea that they arose
spontaneously.
Cell theory was not formulated for nearly 200 years after the introduction of
microscopy. Explanations for this delay range from the poor quality of the microscopes
to the persistence of ancient ideas concerning the definition of a fundamental living
unit. Many observations of cells were made, but apparently none of the observers was
able to assert forcefully that cells are the units of biological structure and function.
Three critical discoveries made during the 1830s, when improved microscopes with
suitable lenses, higher powers of magnification without aberration, and more
satisfactory illumination became available, were decisive events in the early
development of cell theory. First, the nucleus was observed by Scottish botanist Robert
Brown in 1833 as a constant component of plant cells. Next, nuclei were also observed
and recognized as such in some animal cells. Finally, a living substance
called protoplasm was recognized within cells, its vitality made evident by its
active streaming, or flowing, movements, especially in plant cells. After these three
discoveries, cells, previously considered as mere pores in plant tissue, could no longer be
thought of as empty, because they contained living material.
Matthias Jakob Schleiden
Theodor Schwann
It was not until 1838 that the botanist Matthias Jakob Schleiden, interested in
plant anatomy, stated that “the lower plants all consist of one cell, while the higher ones
are composed of (many) individual cells.” When the physiologist Theodor Schwann,
Schleiden’s friend, extended the cellular theory to include animals, he thereby brought
about a rapprochement between botany and zoology. The two scientists clearly stated in
1839 that cells are the “elementary particles of organisms” in both plants and animals
and recognized that some organisms are unicellular and others multicellular. This
statement was made in Schwann’s Mikroskopische Untersuchungen über die
Übereinstimmung in der Struktur und dem Wachstume der Tiere und
Pflanzen (1839; Microscopical Researches into the Accordance in the Structure and
Growth of Animals and Plants). Schleiden’s contributions on plants were acknowledged
by Schwann as the basis for his comparison of animal and plant structure.
Schleiden and Schwann’s descriptive statements concerning the cellular basis of biologic
structure are straightforward and acceptable to modern thought. They recognized the
common features of cells to be the membrane, nucleus, and cell body and described
them in comparisons of various animal and plant tissues. A statement by Schleiden
pointed toward the future direction of cell studies:
Each cell leads a double life: an independent one, pertaining to its own development alone;
and another incidental, insofar as it has become an integral part of a plant. It is, however,
easy to perceive that the vital process of the individual cells must form the first, absolutely
indispensable fundamental basis, both as regards vegetable physiology and comparative
physiology in general.
Bruce M. AlbertsThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
