In his famous “Micrographia” (Hooke, 1665) the structure of a plant
tissue has been recorded for the first time thus laying the basis for cell
studies. At that time neither he himself nor his contemporaries could have
even imagined the historic importance of this discovery. With the then
existing microscopes they only out of curiosity have observed and registered
the porous structure of different plant and animal tissues and organs. To
them these pores have been hollow spaces filled up with air or a liquid,
separated by bars. That is why their discoverer himself did not give them the
most suitable name — cells. The term cell wall was introduced later.
The Dutch inventor-microscopist and biologist Antony van
Leeuwenhoek has constructed an instrument with one lens resembling a
modern magnifying glass (Fig. 2–2). In his rich collection of 200
“microscopes” there were such of magnification from 40 to 270 times. With
them he has observed and described in 1674—1680 invisible to the “naked
eye” red blood bodies (erythrocytes), spermatozoa and different unicellular
organisms in a water drop. So was the world of microorganisms
discovered. Besides, Leeuwenhoek has observed that in the plant and
animal tissues there are “pores” i.e. cells (Fig. 2–3), but he has not reached
the ideas of the cellular structure (van Leeuwenhoek, 1705; see History of
Biology, 1972, 1975).
image
Figure 2–2. The “microscope” of Antony van Leeuwenhoek (From Katznelson, 1939).