Chapter the Third

Discovering Cells



He turned to a book on his desk which he opened at a marked page and held it up for the class to see.
"This is an instrument called a - 'microscope' ," he explained, "like Orel's glass, it magnifies the image of very small objects. In this way we can see the invisible."
He paused for effect. "Just a few years ago, microscopes were of little use because they made the image look fuzzy, and you could not see any detail. But, in 1829, less than forty years ago, a London wine-merchant called Joseph Jackson Lister, invented a type of microscope that made everything clear." He looked at the smiles on the faces of his students; smiles that his pronunciation of an alien and barbaric name had provoked.

"Here in our own part of the world, Doktor Purkinje, a Czech, has used these microscopes to look at our bodies," he said, hurrying onto safer ground, "His observations convince him that all our flesh is made up of tiny particles called 'cells'." As he spoke, Mendel changed, and this was what the class had been waiting for. Normally a somewhat reserved and quiet man, Mendel became animated and quite eloquent when in front of a class and talking about science. His level of confidence increased and all his natural shyness vanished.
"Cells are tiny, tiny particles of life which, like the bricks in this schoolhouse, are the building blocks of all living things."

"Sixty years ago, Herr Doktor Treviranus took a buttercup and pulled apart its structure. He found that there was a partition between the cells of a plant, and that surrounding each cell was - a box of hard material that remained even when the - contents of the cells decayed."
Thomas Makyatta spoke up from his stool, "If I may, Brother Gregory, I read in a journal that Herr Doktor Remak, at the University of Berlin has also found fibers in animal tissue that - do not have these walls around them. Could it be that plant cells and animal cells are different?"

"It would seem," Mendel told him, not at least put out by the question, " - that cells come in many forms and that indeed plant and animal cells could be different. Not only that, but cells within the same organism may be different from one another. Several lines of evidence suggest this."
With happy smiles on their faces, the students in the room made themselves as comfortable as they could on the wooden, backless seats and waited for one of Brother Gregory's famous lectures. When he became immersed in a subject he forgot to ask them questions, and they could listen without being surprised by a pointed inquiry.

"While I was at the University of Vienna," he said, "Professor Unger began to teach a new subject in the study of botany which he called 'plant physiology'. He undertook a microscopic study of the - internal structure of plants and we all helped him with his experiments."
In his corner, Herr Makyatta smiled to himself. He well knew how much Brother Gregory had both loved and hated his years at the University of Vienna.
"Professor Unger's work was considerably influenced by the work of Professor Schleiden, a German botanist who, while at the University of Jena, had written considerably about the cells he had found in plants. To this day I have kept my copy of Professor Schleiden's book Principles of Scientific Botany." Which he also held up to show the class.

"In this book, Professor Schleiden makes quite clear that the explanation of any process taking place in a plant must be based on - changes which take place in its individual cells . He firmly believes that an understanding of cells will give us an understanding of life itself." He paused and looked around the room. Each student, whether he was interested in the subject, or not, kept a straight and interested look on his face.