Monastic cell

“ One step higher in the scale of life than the monera is the vegetable or animal cell, which arose out of the monera by the important process of segregation in their homogeneous viscid bodies, the differentiation of an inner kernel from the surrounding plasma. By this means the great progress from a simple cytod (without kernel) into a real cell (with kernel) was accomplished. Some of these cells at an early stage encased themselves by secreting a hardened membrane; they formed the first vegetable cells, while others remaining naked developed into the first aggregate of animal cells. ”

“ So the Chair of Peter, the central cell of the church organism, can generate only one organism. Christ has one body and no more. That only can be the Catholic Church in which is, as its centre, the Chair of Peter, or, as we have before said, the organic central see, which may justly be called the Holy See, the Apostolic See, "the mother and mistress of all the churches," as in the living body the original central organic cell is the mother and mistress of all the secondary or inferior cells generated in the evolution of the organism. Here, again, theology and physiology coincide in principle. ”

“ As the monkish cell, like the human brain, could accommodate any number of devils, it was as convenient a hall of audience in which to receive His Satanic Majesty, as it was an area for the scientific manoeuvering of his legions. ”

“ The groups of minute mosaics or cells that make up the bodies of animals and plants differ profoundly from the mosaics that form the figures of the dead Emperor and his companions, inasmuch as each mosaic or cell of the animal or plant body is so small as to require the microscope to reveal it; also [4] each mosaic of the living animal or plant is a living mosaic or cell, in that it can absorb food, digest it, assimilate it, grow, and multiply in numbers. Cells, then, are the morphological or structural units which compose the bodies of all living creatures. ”

“ Their cells, built of stone, have each a little garden walled round. A constant fire is allowed to be kept in every cell, on account of the coldness of the air throughout the year: each cell has also a chapel in which they may say mass: they call their superior, major. ”

“ I repeat that we must call in the aid of the hypothesis only as regards the Monera, the structureless “organisms without organs.” Every complex organism must have been evolved from some lower organism. We must not assume the spontaneous generation of even the simplest cell, for this itself consists of at least two parts—the internal, firm nuclear substance, and the external, softer cellular substance or the protoplasm of the cell-body. These two parts must have been formed by differentiation from the indifferent plasson of a moneron, or a cytode. ”

“ If the organic population of our planet has arisen naturally, and not by a miracle, as Reinke and other vitalists suppose, the earliest elementary organisms, produced by the chemical process of archigony (spontaneous generation) , could not be real nucleated cells, but unnucleated cytodes of the type of the chromacea [159] (cf. chapter ii.) . The nucleated real cell, as Oscar Hertwig and others define it to-day, can only have arisen by phylogenetic differentiation of nucleus and cell-body from the simple cytode of the monera. ”

“ We will say that he has taken some primitive form of life for a pattern, a moneron, perhaps, the moat simple type of animal, consisting of a single cell of protoplasm. There still exists a difference between the moneron and the synthetically created cell. Chemically and physically they are the same, but the moneron is alive.
"What, is life? Broadly defined as we recognize it on this earth, it is a temporary union of mind and matter. ”

“ The walls of collenchyma consist of cellulose.
STONE CELLS
Stone cells, like bast fibres, are branched or non-branched. Each group is then separated into subgroups according to wall structure (whether striated, or pitted and striated, etc.) , thickness of wall and of cell cavity, color of wall and of cell contents, absence of color and of cell contents, etc.
BRANCHED STONE CELLS
Branched stone cells occur in a number of drugs. In witch-hazel bark (Plate 31, Fig. 2) the walls are thick, white, and very porous. In some cells the branches are of equal length; in others they are unequal. ”

“ All cells, whatever their nature, possess a transitive movement; the French word éclater has the meaning of to disperse in brilliancy; if we imagine scintillations of light escaping from a central luminary we obtain the idea of a transitive luminous movement. Whilst a cell preserves its primary condition it is not possible to predict its future; no human intelligence could have foretold that the root div and dyu would produce the Sanscrit word deva, which means to shine, [200] and deva would in time develop into deus, which now no longer means to shine, but God. ”

“ The systematic elaboration of the theory of cells, founded on careful observation and mature reflection, began with the year 1844. Almost at the same time in this year appeared Nägeli's detailed enquiries into the occurrence of the cell-nucleus and into cell-division, von Mohl's observations on the primordial utricle and its behaviour in the process of cell-division in young tissue, and lastly those of Unger on merismatic cell-formation (cell-division) as a general mode of proceeding in the growth of organs. ”

“ In many cells the protoplasm has formed on its periphery a layer of metaplasm which is frequently called a cell-wall. This cell-wall prevents amœboid movements of the protoplasm, and a cell possessing it is said to be encysted. ”

“ Above is man, built of myriads of cells woven into the most ingenious tissues and the most perfect organs for each function of life; below we have the radiolarian, in which a single cell must discharge all the vital functions, because its whole body is merely one cell. But there is another wonder. This tiny particle of living slime, floating in the blue waves at Messina, hardly more visible than a drop of spittle, has a most remarkable quality. ”

“ The most powerful microscopes disclose in this protoplasm a certain definite structure, a very fine, thread-like network spreading from the nucleus throughout the semi-fluid albuminous protoplasm. It is certainly in line with the broad analogies of life, to suppose that in each cell the nucleus with its network is the brain and nervous system of that individual cell.
All living organisms consist, then simply of cells. Those consisting of but one cell are termed unicellular; those comprising more than one cell are called pluricellular.
The unicellular organism is the unit of life on this earth. ”

“ Natura non facit saltus.
All living bodies can be decomposed into visible elements under the microscope, and these have been named Plastides or Cells. That word is employed in a more general sense. The most simple Plastide is the Cytode, a simple mass of protoplasm without a nucleus or membranous envelope. A cell in a restricted meaning of the word is a Cytode presenting a nucleus, that is to say, a mass of protoplasm in the midst of which is a distinct part of the substance ambient differentiated by its aspect and its property. ”

“ In these cases a number of constant cell-individuals remain with their nucleus throughout life, although a used-up portion of their cell-body may be replaced by regeneration from the cytoplasm. Thus our human body, like that of all the higher animals and plants, is a "cell-state" in another sense. Every day, nay, every hour, thousands of its citizens, the tissue-cells, pass away, and are replaced by others that have arisen by cleavage of similar cells. ”

“ The cavity of many stone cells contains no characteristic cell contents. In other stone cells the cell contents are as characteristic as the stone cell. The stone cells of both Saigon and Ceylon cinnamon (Plate 33, Fig. 1) contain starch; the stone cells of calumba (Plate 33, Fig. 2) contain prisms of calcium oxalate; the stone cells of allspice and sweet-birch bark contain tannin. ”

“ The cell wall is not a simple dead scum on the outside of the protoplasm, but is itself able to do certain things which can only, so far as we know, be done by living substances. For instance, of two materials dissolved in the water in which the cell floats, the wall may permit one to soak into the animal and keep the other out. The one allowed to enter will usually be found good to be used for food by the cell. The nucleus seems to store within itself the record of its past history and thus enable the cell to do in the future what its ancestors did in the past. ”

“ In some cases the protoplasm at the circumference is so modified as to give the appearance of a limiting membrane called the cell wall. In brief, then, a cell is a mass of nucleated protoplasm; the nucleus may have a nucleolus, and the cell may be limited by a cell wall. Every tissue of the human body is formed through the agency of protoplasmic cells, although in most cases the changes they undergo are so great that little evidence remains of their existence. ”

“ Round about it are the houses or cells inhabited by the monks. These may be of wood or stone, of an orthodox cell-like pattern, or they may be ordinary native houses specially erected in the precincts of the "bote" for the accommodation of the priests. They should possess no furniture, and rarely do so. ”

“ On the skin of the Anemone there are many thousands of very tiny pockets, or cells. Each cell contains a fine thread with a poisoned barb at the tip, The thread is packed away in the cell, coiled up like the spring of a watch. ”

“ Where the cell containing the germ-plasm happens to be a free cell, it is called an “organism”; but whether it be a germ-cell or a protozoan, it alike ceases to be a cell when it has given origin to a multitude of other cells, whether these happen to be other germ-cells (plus somatic-cells) or other protozoan cells. In short, quâ cell, all cells are mortal: it is only the substance of heredity which some cells contain that can be said, in any sense of the term, to be immortal. ”

“ And his master said unto him, “Seek out a place for thyself, and we will build a cell for thee, and thou shalt become a monk.” So the disciple went and found a place, which was distant from his master about one hundred paces, and he made himself a cell. Then the old man said unto that brother, “Whatsoever I say unto thee, that do. When thou art hungry, eat; and when thou art thirsty, drink; and sleep, but thou must not go out from thy cell until the Sabbath Day, when thou shalt come to me.” Then the old man went back to his cell. ”

“ The evidence points to the origin of all these free cells from germ-cells, and thus leads to the conception that the blastula stage of every embryo represents two kinds of cells, the one which will form the mortal host being the locomotor neuro-epithelial cell, the other the independent immortal symbiotic germ-cell. ”

“ With regard to the former, we have seen that in the single cells, constituting unicellular organisms, there is always a bounding membrane of denser texture than the rest of the protoplasm. As the cell develops its capabilities, we have a shell or case of non-living matter secreted around it, with apertures for communication with the outside world, and increasingly effective protection is provided as protoplasm, whether in the single cell or the body, leaves the water, and has to face the inclemencies of terrestrial life. ”

“ Moreover, young cells are always more active than older ones, and they commonly possess either no cell wall or a very slight one, this being deposited as the cell becomes older and remaining long after it is dead. Such facts soon disproved the notion that the cell wall is a vital part of the cell, and a new conception took its place which was to have a more profound influence upon the study of living things than any discovery hitherto made. This was the formulation of the doctrine of the nature of protoplasm. ”

“ If the nature and the character of a cell is determined by the substance of the nucleus and not by the cell-body, then the immortality of the germ-cells is preserved, although only the nuclear substance passes uninterruptedly from one generation to another. ”

“ Each fresh cell-division sorts out tendencies which were mixed in the nucleus of the mother-cell, until the complete mass of embryonic cells is formed, each with a nuclear idio-plasm which stamps its specific histological character on the cell. ”

“ It is, then, the corpuscles of protoplasm, called cells (cellulæ) , which have so much interest for the physiologist, and these, like the cytods, may form independent organisms, which are then termed unicellular. Again, cells form other cells, and a multicellular organism results, and goes on increasing in geometrical progression. In the Vertebrata the cell retains its characteristic spheroidal shape, as seen in Fig. 423, and undergoes division by virtue of its living protoplasmic mass.
Fig. 423.
1. Newly formed cell structure; 2. Division of the nucleus; 3. ”

“ The steps of this long ladder extend uninterruptedly from the simple cell-division of the protists to the monogony of the histona, and from this to the complicated amphigony of the higher organisms. In the simplest case, the cell-cleavage of the monera, propagation (by simple transverse division) is clearly nothing more than transgressive growth. But even the preliminary [257] stage of sexual differentiation, the copulation of two equal cells (gameta) , is really nothing but a special form of growth. ”