A re-statement of the cell theory : with applications to the morphology, classification, and physiology of protists, plants, and animals : together with an hypothesis of cell-structure, and an hypothesis of contractility / by Patrick Geddes.

Date:
[1884]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A re-statement of the cell theory : with applications to the morphology, classification, and physiology of protists, plants, and animals : together with an hypothesis of cell-structure, and an hypothesis of contractility / by Patrick Geddes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    7/32 (page 269)
    cellular unit, however valuable, yet throws no light upon a large number of problems at present under dispute; and it is the aim of the present paper to draw attention to some of these, and by the aid of a re-statement of the ceU theory (a new appendix as it were to the Anatomie Generate, or to the work of Schwann), to propose a solution of them. The problems then which it is proposed to discuss may be briefly enumerated for convenience under separate heads, as follows :— (1) The classification and affinities of the Protozoa. (2) The classification and affinities of the Protophytes. (3) The systematic position of the Myxoniycetes and other peculiar forms. (4) The acceptance or rejection of Hseckel's third intermediate sub-kingdom Protista. (5) The phylogeny of the lower plants and animals, and their origin from one or several stocks. (6) The relation of the Protophytes to the higher plants. (7) The relation of the Protozoa to the higher animals. (8) The morphological relations of plants to animals and their origin from a common stock, or from separate ones. (9) The classification of animal tissues. (10) The physiological rationale of changes of cell-form. (11) A theory of the origin of sexual reproduction, and its relation to conjugation and other cases of cell union. (12) The relation between normal and pathological tissues. (13) The influence of the environment on the origin of organic forms. (14) A theory of cellular variation (since the theory of descent involves a theory of variation, and all variations, normal and patho- logical alike) must ultimately be expressible in terms of cellular ones. 1. Classification and Affinities of the Protozoa.—The Protozoa have long been thrown into a few main groups, of which the Rhizp- poda, embracing all essentially amceboid forms like the Protoplasta, Foraminifera, Heliozoa, and Radiolaria, and the Infusoria, including all those of permanent and usually ciliated type, are the oldest and most important. The position of the Gregarinida, of the Monads, and still more of forms like Chlamydomyxa and the Labyiinthulida,