United States or Lesotho ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
We remind the reader of the itinerant lectures of Karl Vogt about the ape-pedigree of man, and of the echo they found by assent or dissent in press and public; also of Huxley in England, Karl Snell, Schleiden, Reichenbach, and others; of the materialists, L. Büchuer and Moleschott, and of the publications of Ernst Häckel.
Ehrenberg, another high authority of the time, contended that no such division occurs, and the matter was still in dispute when Schleiden came forward with his discovery of so-called free cell-formation within the parent cell, and this for a long time diverted attention from the process of division which Von Mohl had described.
The location of these nuclei at comparatively regular intervals suggested that they are found in definite compartments of the tissue, as Schleiden had shown to be the case with vegetables; indeed, the walls that separated such cell-like compartments one from another were in some cases visible.
The earlier idea had, in effect, declared the shell the most important part of the egg; this developed view assigned to the yolk its true position. In one other important regard the theory of Schleiden and Schwann now became modified. This referred to the origin of the cell.
It does seem most strange or rather will seem most strange a hundred years hence that we, the nation of colonists, the nation of sailors, the nation of foreign commerce, the nation of foreign military stations, the nation of travellers for travelling's sake, the nation of which one man here and another there as Schleiden sets forth in his book, "The Plant," in a charming ideal conversation at the Travellers' Club has seen and enjoyed more of the wonders and beauties of this planet than the men of any nation, not even excepting the Germans that this nation, I say, should as yet have done nothing, or all but nothing, to teach in her schools a knowledge of that planet, of which she needs to know more, and can if she will know more, than any other nation upon it.
I was ignorant at the time of the thousands of acute intellects engaged in the same pursuit as myself, and with the advantage of instruments a thousand times more powerful than mine. The names of Leeuwenhoek, Williamson, Spencer, Ehrenberg, Schultz, Dujardin, Schact, and Schleiden were then entirely unknown to me, or, if known, I was ignorant of their patient and wonderful researches.
But late careful researches in Germany have shown the former existence of numerous beaver dams in that country, though the animal, having becaome rare to form colonies, has of course ceased to attempt works which require the co-operation of numerous individuals. Schleiden, Fur Baum und Wald Leipzig, 1870, p. 68.
More revolutionary still in its effects was the epoch-making discovery of the protoplasmic cell as the common element of life in the plant and animal world, made by the Germans Schleiden and Schwann . It was this that first bridged over what were held to be the fundamental distinctions of animate nature, and made possible the conception of a vital physical continuity which has since been accepted as an axiom of biological science.
What Charles Darwin said about "The Origin of Species" is ten thousand times more important than what some pettifogging lawyer said about "States' Rights." The revelations of the cellular composition of animals by Schwan and plants by Schleiden mark greater steps in human progress than any or all of the decisions of the supreme court.
Mueller, Director of the Government Botanic Garden at Melbourne, a Eucalyptus, near Healesville, measured 480 feet in height. Later accounts speak of trees of the same species fully 500 feet in height. See Schleiden, Fur Baum und Wald, p. 21. European and American Trees compared.
Word Of The Day