The cell ; outlines of general anatomy and physiology / by Dr. Oscar Hertwig ... Tr. by M. Campbell, and ed. by Henry Johnstone Campbell ... With 168 illustrations.

  • 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 ... Tr. by M. Campbell, and ed. by Henry Johnstone Campbell ... With 168 illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    is a section entitled The Cell as the Elemental Germ of an Organism, in which both the older and more recent theories of heredity are dealt with. The second part of the complete work, which is to deal with the tissues, will be of about the same length, and will form to a greater extent a supplement to the Text-book of Embryology. For in addition to a description of the tissues, especial emphasis will be laid upon their origin of histogenesis and upon the physiological causes which underlie the formation ; the other side of the process of development, that is to say, histological differentiation, will also be discussed. In the account, which I have endeavoured to make as intelligible as possible, scientific views have primarily guided me. What I have striven to do to the best of my ability is, to fix the scientific stand-point occupied at present by the doctrines of cell and tissue formation. Further, I have tried to delineate the historical course of the development of the more important theories. With regard to disputed points I have frequently compared various opinions. If, as is natural, I have placed my own views in the foreground, and, moreover, if I have occasionally differed from the views and explanations of prominent and highly-esteemed scientists whose opinions I value extremely, it is only due to them to say that I do not on that account consider the conceptions pi^eferred by me to be unconditionally correct, still less do I wish to belittle the views from which I differ. Antagonistic opinions are necessary to the life and development of science; and, as I have observed in studying the history of the subject, science progresses most rapidly and successfully in proportion to the diversity of the opinions held by different authorities. As is only human, almost all observations and the conclusions deduced from them are one- sided, and hence continually need correction. How necessary then must this be in the subject of the present inquiry, that is to say, in the cell, which is a marvellously complicated organism, a small universe, into the construction of which we can only laboriously penetrate by means of microscopical, chemico-physical and experi- mental methods of inquiry. Oscar Hektwig. Berlin, October, 1892.