THE CELLULAR DOCTRINE IN

This article appears in Volume V20, Page 917 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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THE CELLULAR DOCTRINE IN

PATHOLOGY

PATHOLOGY (from Gr. raBos, suffering)

The cellular

pathology

PATHOLOGY (from Gr. raBos, suffering)

is the pathology of to-day; indeed, protoplasmits vital characteristics under abnormal influences and its decaywill be regarded most likely as the basis of pathology in all time. According to our present knowledge of physiological and pathological processes, we must regard the cell as the ultimate biological unita unit of structure and a unit of

function

FUNCTION

; this was first put forward by Schleiden in 1838, and by Schwann in 1839, but we owe to Virchow the full recognition of the fundamental importance of the living cell in all the processes of

life

LIFE

, whether in

health

HEALTH

or disease. When Virchow wrote, in 185o, " every animal presents itself as a sum of vital unities, every one of which manifests all the characteristics of

life

LIFE

," he expressed a

doctrine

DOCTRINE

whose sway since then has practically been uninterrupted. The somatic cells represent communities or republics, as it were, which we name organs and tissues, but each cell possesses a certain autonomy and independence of action, and exhibits phenomena which are indicative of vitality.
Still, it must be borne in mind that this alleged autonomy of action is said to be founded upon an erroneous supposition, on the supposition that each cell is structurally, and it may be said functionally, separated from those in its neighbourhood. It is well known that in the vegetable kingdom the protoplasm of one cell frequently overflows into that of cells adjacentthat there is, as it were, a continuous network of protoplasm (idioplasm of Nageli) prevailing throughout vegetable tissues, rather than an

aggregation

AGGREGATION (from the Lat. ad, to, gregare, to collect together)

of isolated units. The same inter-communication prevails between adjacent cells in some animal tissues, and more particularly in those which are pathological, as in the case of the

epithelial

EPITHELIAL, ENDOTHELIAL

cells of cancer. Assuming, with Sedgwick and others, this amassed and bound

condition

CONDITION (Lat. condicio, from condicere, to agree upon, arrange; not connected with conditio, from condere, conditum, to put together)

of the tissues to be true, it would be necessary to reject the cell-

doctrine

DOCTRINE

in pathology altogether, and to regard the living basis of the organism as a continuous substance whose parts are incapable of living independently of the whole. Until, however, further evidence is forthcoming in support of this syncytial theory of structure, it would be unwise to regard it as established sufficiently to constitute a serviceable working hypothesis; hence, for the time being, we must accept the assertion that the cell represents the ultimate

tissue

TISSUE (Fr. tissu, tissue, participle of tisser, Lat. texere, to weave)

-unit. Our present day definition of a cell is a minute portion of living organized substance or protoplasm.
The cells met with in morbid parts which are in a state of active vitality are built up of the same components as those
found in normal tissues (PI. I.).1 Thus they are pro- Structure of vided with a nucleus which is the centre of cell activity; Pathological both of the reproductive and chemical (metabolic) pro- Cells. cesses which occur in the cell protoplasm. The executive centre
1 DESCRIPTION OF

PLATE

PLATE

I.

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