Remarks on Quekett's Histology, On Kölliker's Human histology, and on the physiological importance of the nucleus of the cell / by Martin Barry, M.D.

  • Barry, M. (Martin), 1802-1855.
Date:
[1854]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on Quekett's Histology, On Kölliker's Human histology, and on the physiological importance of the nucleus of the cell / by Martin Barry, M.D. 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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    my own experience has given me many proofs. The volumes by Quekett and by Kolliker furnish many more. Such at least, I think, will be found the case by those who may feel dis- posed to compare the drawings of these excellent observers with my own. In 1840, when my views on the physiological importance of the nucleus of the cell were announced,' I had tlie misfortune to stand quite alone ; for no one then had questioned the views of Schleiden and Schwann, that the nucleus, after forming the mem- brane of the cell, either remains inert, or, as a useless member, is absorbed. A separation of the nucleus into two or three parts, where previously observed—viz., in the globule of pus and mucus —had been attributed by Giiterbock, Henle, and others, to a chemical reagent used in the examination—acetic acid.^ But I showed that neither acetic acid nor any other foreign substance is required to produce the separation in question; this separation being natural, jrpparently common to nuclei in general, and forming part of the process by which cells are reproduced. Fai'ther, I showed that young cells originate through division of the nucleus of the parent cell, instead of arising as a sort of product of ci'ystallization in the fluid cytoblastema of the parent cell, as since supposed by Reichert. The following are some of the principal facts which I recorded— the first three in the Phil. Trans, for 1840, and the others in the Phil. Trans, for 1842 :— 1. The nucleus neither remains inert, nor is absorbed as useless, after the formation of the membrane of the cell. 2. The cell is propagated by division of its nucleus. 3. This division of the nucleus is initiated by division of the nucleolus. 4. Fibre is originally flat, and marked with strite, and it has originally a crenate edge. 5. Fibre shows a constant tendency to lose its striation, and become rectihnear. 6. In some cells the nucleus is seen giving off fibre. 7. Sometimes the entire nucleus becomes a ring of fibre. 8. Sometimes the entire nucleus passes into a coil of fibre. 9. Sometimes fibre given cflF by the nucleus of a cell is met with, simply deposited upon the inner surface of the cell-wall. 10. Fibre given off by the nucleus of a cell sometimes thickens the cell-wall. 11. Fibre is sometimes seen entering into the formation of mem- brane. ' Researches in Embryology, Third Series; a Contribution to the Physio- loffy of Cells.—?hi\. Trans. 1840. Henle, Hufeland's Journal, Mai 1838, p. 62, PI. I, figs. 9-12. ' Das Entwickehingsleben im Wirbelthier-reich, 1842, p. 2.