The mitotic cycle : the cytoplasm and nucleus during interphase and mitosis / by Arthur Hughes.

  • Hughes, Arthur Frederick William, 1908-
Date:
1952
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The mitotic cycle : the cytoplasm and nucleus during interphase and mitosis / by Arthur Hughes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    4 CELLS IN DIVISION prophase and telophase in the living nucleus In the succeeding pages, observations on the nuclear cycle in a number of living cells in mitosis will be described. The use of living material for such studies has a history of some interest. In 1879 three papers were published on the course of division in the living cells; Flemming^ and Schleicher^ observed cells of larval Amphibia, and independently published their results in the same volume of one journal; while Stras- BURGER^ described a method of observing the living cells of the staminal hairs of Tradescantia; and a series of drawings of these cells in division appeared in the following year in a new edition of his Zellbildung und J^elltheilung.^ These studies clearly established that the normal method of nuclear multiplication both in plants and animals consists of a series of complex events in which two new nuclei are formed from one. Flemming's description was the most detailed; he showed that the later stages of the process are the reverse of the early ones. The decisive effect of these discoveries is well illustrated by a remark of Nordenskiold's^ in comparing the first and third editions of Strasburger's book : Even in the first edition (1875), Strasburger makes the nucleus of the egg-cell in the plants he investigated dissolve upon fertilization and its mass disperse into the plasm of the cell; in the latter are then formed a number of concretions, which give rise to fresh nuclei. In the third edition, on the other hand, it is asserted that examples of independent cell formation can no longer be cited from the vegetable kingdom; fresh nuclei invariably arise through the division of older ones. In the following decades, studies on living material played a decreas¬ ing part in the growth of further knowledge of the cell. Advances in microscopical technique, both in methods of staining and in the optics of the instrument were relevant only to the study of fixed preparations. Furthermore, the discovery of Sutton® that in the reduction division of the germ cells there were events which corresponded to Mendel's segregation and free assortment of the hereditary characters led to researches on cellular anatomy which demanded the utmost resolution of which the microscope was capable; this development necessarily enhanced the tendency of cytologists to work exclusively with stained material. There were still occasional researches on living cells, but they did not directly relate to the dominant concern with the microscopy of inheritance. However, interest in the study of the living cell revived, notably in 70