A History of Science, vol 4 by Henry Smith Williams (best novels to read for beginners txt) 📖
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appearance of arterial and venous blood, which so puzzled the
early physiologists.
This proof of the vitally important role played by the red-blood
corpuscles led, naturally, to renewed studies of these
infinitesimal bodies. It was found that they may vary greatly in
number at different periods in the life of the same individual,
proving that they may be both developed and destroyed in the
adult organism. Indeed, extended observations left no reason to
doubt that the process of corpuscle formation and destruction may
be a perfectly normal one—that, in short, every red-blood
corpuscle runs its course and dies like any more elaborate
organism. They are formed constantly in the red marrow of bones,
and are destroyed in the liver, where they contribute to the
formation of the coloring matter of the bile. Whether there are
other seats of such manufacture and destruction of the corpuscles
is not yet fully determined. Nor are histologists agreed as to
whether the red-blood corpuscles themselves are to be regarded as
true cells, or merely as fragments of cells budded out from a
true cell for a special purpose; but in either case there is not
the slightest doubt that the chief function of the red corpuscle
is to carry oxygen.
If the oxygen is taken to the ultimate cells before combining
with the combustibles it is to consume, it goes without saying
that these combustibles themselves must be carried there also.
Nor could it be in doubt that the chiefest of these ultimate
tissues, as regards, quantity of fuel required, are the muscles.
A general and comprehensive view of the organism includes, then,
digestive apparatus and lungs as the channels of fuel-supply;
blood and lymph channels as the transportation system; and muscle
cells, united into muscle fibres, as the consumption furnaces,
where fuel is burned and energy transformed and rendered
available for the purposes of the organism, supplemented by a set
of excretory organs, through which the waste products—the
ashes—are eliminated from the system.
But there remain, broadly speaking, two other sets of organs
whose size demonstrates their importance in the economy of the
organism, yet whose functions are not accounted for in this
synopsis. These are those glandlike organs, such as the spleen,
which have no ducts and produce no visible secretions, and the
nervous mechanism, whose central organs are the brain and spinal
cord. What offices do these sets of organs perform in the great
labor-specializing aggregation of cells which we call a living
organism?
As regards the ductless glands, the first clew to their function
was given when the great Frenchman Claude Bernard (the man of
whom his admirers loved to say, “He is not a physiologist merely;
he is physiology itself”) discovered what is spoken of as the
glycogenic function of the liver. The liver itself, indeed, is
not a ductless organ, but the quantity of its biliary output
seems utterly disproportionate to its enormous size, particularly
when it is considered that in the case of the human species the
liver contains normally about one-fifth of all the blood in the
entire body. Bernard discovered that the blood undergoes a change
of composition in passing through the liver. The liver cells
(the peculiar forms of which had been described by Purkinje,
Henle, and Dutrochet about 1838) have the power to convert
certain of the substances that come to them into a starchlike
compound called glycogen, and to store this substance away till
it is needed by the organism. This capacity of the liver cells
is quite independent of the bile-making power of the same cells;
hence the discovery of this glycogenic function showed that an
organ may have more than one pronounced and important specific
function. But its chief importance was in giving a clew to those
intermediate processes between digestion and final assimilation
that are now known to be of such vital significance in the
economy of the organism.
In the forty odd years that have elapsed since this pioneer
observation of Bernard, numerous facts have come to light showing
the extreme importance of such intermediate alterations of
food-supplies in the blood as that performed by the liver. It has
been shown that the pancreas, the spleen, the thyroid gland, the
suprarenal capsules are absolutely essential, each in its own
way, to the health of the organism, through metabolic changes
which they alone seem capable of performing; and it is suspected
that various other tissues, including even the muscles
themselves, have somewhat similar metabolic capacities in
addition to their recognized functions. But so extremely
intricate is the chemistry of the substances involved that in no
single case has the exact nature of the metabolisms wrought by
these organs been fully made out. Each is in its way a chemical
laboratory indispensable to the right conduct of the organism,
but the precise nature of its operations remains inscrutable. The
vast importance of the operations of these intermediate organs is
unquestioned.
A consideration of the functions of that other set of organs
known collectively as the nervous system is reserved for a later
chapter.
VI. THEORIES OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION
GOETHE AND THE METAMORPHOSIS OF PARTS
When Coleridge said of Humphry Davy that he might have been the
greatest poet of his time had he not chosen rather to be the
greatest chemist, it is possible that the enthusiasm of the
friend outweighed the caution of the critic. But however that
may be, it is beyond dispute that the man who actually was the
greatest poet of that time might easily have taken the very
highest rank as a scientist had not the muse distracted his
attention. Indeed, despite these distractions, Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe achieved successes in the field of pure science that
would insure permanent recognition for his name had he never
written a stanza of poetry. Such is the versatility that marks
the highest genius.
It was in 1790 that Goethe published the work that laid the
foundations of his scientific reputation—the work on the
Metamorphoses of Plants, in which he advanced the novel doctrine
that all parts of the flower are modified or metamorphosed
leaves.
“Every one who observes the growth of plants, even
superficially,” wrote Goethe, “will notice that certain external
parts of them become transformed at times and go over into the
forms of the contiguous parts, now completely, now to a greater
or less degree. Thus, for example, the single flower is
transformed into a double one when, instead of stamens, petals
are developed, which are either exactly like the other petals of
the corolla in form, and color or else still bear visible signs
of their origin.
“When we observe that it is possible for a plant in this way to
take a step backward, we shall give so much the more heed to the
regular course of nature and learn the laws of transformation
according to which she produces one part through another, and
displays the most varying forms through the modification of one
single organ.
“Let us first direct our attention to the plant at the moment
when it develops out of the seed-kernel. The first organs of its
upward growth are known by the name of cotyledons; they have also
been called seed-leaves.
“They often appear shapeless, filled with new matter, and are
just as thick as they are broad. Their vessels are
unrecognizable and are hardly to be distinguished from the mass
of the whole; they bear almost no resemblance to a leaf, and we
could easily be misled into regarding them as special organs.
Occasionally, however, they appear as real leaves, their vessels
are capable of the most minute development, their similarity to
the following leaves does not permit us to take them for special
organs, but we recognize them instead to be the first leaves of
the stalk.
“The cotyledons are mostly double, and there is an observation to
be made here which will appear still more important as we
proceed—that is, that the leaves of the first node are often
paired, even when the following leaves of the stalk stand
alternately upon it. Here we see an approximation and a joining
of parts which nature afterwards separates and places at a
distance from one another. It is still more remarkable when the
cotyledons take the form of many little leaves gathered about an
axis, and the stalk which grows gradually from their midst
produces the following leaves arranged around it singly in a
whorl. This may be observed very exactly in the growth of the
pinus species. Here a corolla of needles forms at the same time a
calyx, and we shall have occasion to remember the present case in
connection with similar phenomena later.
“On the other hand, we observe that even the cotyledons which are
most like a leaf when compared with the following leaves of the
stalk are always more undeveloped or less developed. This is
chiefly noticeable in their margin which is extremely simple and
shows few traces of indentation.
“A few or many of the next following leaves are often already
present in the seed, and lie enclosed between the cotyledons; in
their folded state they are known by the name of plumules. Their
form, as compared with the cotyledons and the following leaves,
varies in different plants. Their chief point of variance,
however, from the cotyledons is that they are flat, delicate, and
formed like real leaves generally. They are wholly green, rest on
a visible node, and can no longer deny their relationship to the
following leaves of the stalk, to which, however, they are
usually still inferior, in so far as that their margin is not
completely developed.
“The further development, however, goes on ceaselessly in the
leaf, from node to node; its midrib is elongated, and more or
less additional ribs stretch out from this towards the sides. The
leaves now appear notched, deeply indented, or composed of
several small leaves, in which last case they seem to form
complete little branches. The date-palm furnishes a striking
example of such a successive transformation of the simplest leaf
form. A midrib is elongated through a succession of several
leaves, the single fan-shaped leaf becomes torn and diverted, and
a very complicated leaf is developed, which rivals a branch in
form.
“The transition to inflorescence takes place more or less
rapidly. In the latter case we usually observe that the leaves of
the stalk loose their different external divisions, and, on the
other hand, spread out more or less in their lower parts where
they are attached to the stalk. If the transition takes place
rapidly, the stalk, suddenly become thinner and more elongated
since the node of the last-developed leaf, shoots up and collects
several leaves around an axis at its end.
“That the petals of the calyx are precisely the same organs which
have hitherto appeared as leaves on the stalk, but now stand
grouped about a common centre in an often very different form,
can, as it seems to me, be most clearly demonstrated. Already in
connection with the cotyledons above, we noticed a similar
working of nature. The first species, while they are developing
out of the seed-kernel, display a radiate crown of unmistakable
needles; and in the first childhood of these plants we see
already indicated that force of nature whereby when they are
older their flowering and fruit-giving state will be produced.
“We see this force of nature, which collects several leaves
around an axis, produce a still closer union and make these
approximated, modified leaves still more unrecognizable by
joining them together either wholly or partially. The
bell-shaped or so-called one-petalled calices represent these
cloudy connected leaves, which, being more or less indented from
above, or divided, plainly show their origin.
“We can observe the transition from the calyx to the corolla in
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