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15 - Anatomy, Histology, and Cytology

from PART II - ANALYSIS AND EXPERIMENTATION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2009

By
Susan Lawrence
Edited by
Peter J. Bowler  and
John V. Pickstone
Peter J. Bowler
Affiliation:
Queen's University Belfast
John V. Pickstone
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
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Summary

It is as though, when we look at the living body, we look at its reflection in an ever-running stream of water. The material substratum of the reflection, the water, is continually changing, but the reflection remains apparently static. If this analogy contains an element of truth, if, that is to say, we are justified in regarding the living body as a sort of reflection in a stream of material substance which continually passes through it, we are faced with the profound question – what is it that actually determines the ‘reflection’? Here we approach one of the most fundamental riddles of biology – the ‘riddle of form’ as it has been called, the solution of which is still entirely obscure. Wilfred E. Le Gros Clark, The Tissues of the Human Body, 6th edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), p. 9

Anatomy, histology, and cytology are sciences of form that have largely depended on the study of the dead: dead bodies, dead tissues, and dead cells. Each science began with observers isolating, identifying, and naming the external and internal structures of living things, first with the naked eye and then with microscopes. For some investigators, the primary goal has been classification, arranging the bewildering array of plants, insects, fish, birds, and animals into groups and subgroups based on the shapes and arrangements of their parts.

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The Cambridge History of Science , pp. 265 - 284
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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