Proponents of the Cell Theory

MARIA LILIBETH S. FUERTES

Teacher III, JLNHS
 -together with
Hans Janssen,
invented the first
primitive
microscope which
can magnify
objects three to
nine times.

Zacharias Janssen (1590)

ROBERT HOOKE
(1665)
 English Scientist and Microscopist, Robert
Hooke described a honeycomb-like network of
cellulae (Latin for little storage rooms) in cork
slice using his primitive compound
microscope. Robert Hooke used the term cells
to describe units in plant tissue (thick cell
walls could be observed). Of course he saw
only cell walls because cork cells are dead and
without protoplasm. He drew the cells he saw
and also coined the word cell. Hooke
published his findings in his famous
work, Micrographia.
Anton Van Leeuwenhoek
(1673)
Anton van Leeuwenhoek, was the first man to witness a live
cell under a microscope and who in 1674 , using a drop of
pond water, described the algae Spirogyra and named the
moving organisms animalcules, meaning "little animals."
Leeuwenhoek probably also saw bacteria. He described
them in a letter to the Royal Society, which published his
detailed pictures in 1683.
Leeuwenhoek was also the first person, using a microscope,
to observe clearly and to describe red blood cells in humans
and other animals, as well as sperm cells. In addition, he
studied the structure of plants, the compound eyes of
insects, and the life cycles of fleas, aphids, and ants.
Leeuwenhoek made over 400 microscopes, many of which
still exist. The most powerful of these instruments, a simple
microscope, can magnify objects about 275 times.
 -formulated one
of the
fundamental
tenets of
modern cell
theory by
declaring that
"the cell is the
fundamental
element of
organization"

Rene’ Joachim Henri Dutrochet (1824)

 He
discovered
the
nucleus in
plant cell.

Robert Brown (1830)

 - he was the
first to use the
word
‘protoplasm’
in the modern
sense.

Johannes Evangelista Purkinje (1831)

 - based on his studies of
organisms under a
microscope proposed that
many living organisms are
composed of a single cell.
He was the first to state that
cells were not hollow and
described about the jellylike
material in animal cells and
termed it as sarcode (Gr. sari.
flesh). Sarcode is currently
known as protoplasm and
was later found that it is
present in living plant cells
too.
Felix Dujardin (1835)
 -concluded that all
plant tissues are
composed of cells
and that an
embryonic plant arose
from a single cell. He
declared that the cell
is the basic building
block of all plant
matter.

Matthias Jacob Schleiden (1838)

 -reached the same
conclusion as
Schleiden and stated
that all animals are
composed of cells,
ending speculations that
plants and animals were
fundamentally different
in structure. Schwann
described cellular
structures in animal
cartilage (rigid
extracellular matrix)
Theodore Schwann(1839)
 -stated that
“All cells come
from
previously
existing cells.”
Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow (1855)
Classical cell theory
Classical cell theory, as developed
through the observations of Schleiden,
Schwann, and Virchow, holds that:
1. All organisms are made up of one or
more cells.
2. Cells are the fundamental functional and
structural unit of life.
3. All cells come from pre-existing cells.
Modern cell theory
The generally accepted parts of modern cell theory include:
*The cell is the fundamental unit of structure and function in
living things.
* All cells come from pre-existing cells by division.
* Energy flow (metabolism and biochemistry) occurs within
cells.
* Cells contain hereditary information (DNA) which is passed
from cell to cell during cell division
* All cells are basically the same in chemical composition.
* All known living things are made up of cells.
* Some organisms are unicellular, made up of only one cell.
* Other organisms are multicellular, composed of countless
number of cells.
* The activity of an organism depends on the total activity of
independent cells.
Exceptions to the theory
*Viruses are considered by
some to be alive, yet they are
not made up of cells.
*The first cell did not
originate from a pre-existing
cell.