About Discovery of the Cell

Website Disclaimer

This web site is a selection of dates and events in the history of (cell) biology, obtained from many different sources. In many cases the original texts have been used, but information has also been gleaned from the World Wide Web. The compilation was begun by a dedicated Russian scientist, Professor Vladimir Matveev, at The Institute of Cytology, Russia Academy of Science, St Petersburg. He quickly acquired helpers in this time-consuming project. Because it will be accessible on the web, many people will eventually have contributed data and/or corrected information (see below) to produce an increasingly comprehensive coverage of "the development of the cell concept". This will give everyone who peruses it greater insight into the most significant events that have taken place in the four hundred years or so of its existence.

Most of the information has been carefully checked, but decisions about authenticity in historical matters are seldom entirely objective. Indeed, the opposite is often true because judgements about the provenance and inferences of new ideas can be unavoidably subjective. Historians of science are not usually practicing scientists. They can analyze the context in which a piece of scientific information emerged, but it is not their business to weigh the significance of that information in hindsight. The misleading stories told about Mendel as the "Father of Genetics" (when Mendel knew nothing about genes, being concerned exclusively with the preservation of visible traits in plant hybrids) illustrates this point (see ). Therefore, this historical database is likely to contain errors of all kinds, such as challengeable interpretations of who first did what, when and how, and who said he or she did so.

Some parts of it will be controversial because the literature itself is inherently biased. For example, early and mid 19th century German science was highly incestuous and, perhaps because of national fervour, gave little or no credit to work done in other countries around the same time. It is plausible that some unnamed Chinese intellectual discovered the laws of inheritance before the time of Mendel. Similarly, in our own age, journals in one country might publish work that ignores equally important scientific reports coming from the rest of the world. Indeed, every country supports its own great scientists and applauds them above all others. Prior claim to discovery, and to fame, leads to the same aggressive tendencies in science as in any other field of human endeavour. We should not look at the history of science as though it were unsullied by the foibles of mankind.

Entries, information and links have been chosen to be as diverse as possible. They are not entirely the responsibility of the author. However, by posting the information, the author welcomes comments, criticisms, new information, and other interpretations from the scientific community at large. The database will be changed in accordance with these inputs, once the new material has undergone review by a panel of experts: corrections, amendments, additions, and supplementary information will then be entered. In due course, we hope that the database will be greatly enlarged, made more accurate, and improved as a guide to the epistemiological history of cell theory. Please contact us with any amendments or additions.

Database Colour Coding

• All key moments in the development of the cell concept are presented in purple.
• Mention of any term that is relevant to the scientific characterization of a substance, structure or function will be “in quotes as italics” of this color.
• Topics of a particularly contentious nature and where much dubiety exists are given in green.
• Issues of which we remain largely ignorant through loss or absence of information will be in blue.
• From time to time you will find insertions that discuss problems that were faced by scientists of the past in presenting their data; understanding these problems has a significant bearing on our modern appreciation of their relevance and interpretation. They include issues of outstanding importance in determining the significance and conceptual value of a particular discovery. Such intercalations are in this highlighted gray tone. An early discovery left unrecognised for 50 years is not uncommon in biology. The problem of prior claim or precedence is one in which scientists place great store. Also used for paragraphs giving general pointers to the way ahead.

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