From Agents to Cells: Theodor Schwann’s Research Notes of the Years 1835–1838
From Agents to Cells: Theodor Schwann’s Research Notes of the Years 1835–1838
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从媒介到细胞：Theodor Schwann 1835-1838 年的研究笔记
DOI：
10.1007/0-306-48152-9_6
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发表时间：
2003
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
O. Parnes
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
O. Parnes
在 1835 年至 1838 年间的三年内，年轻的西奥多·施万 (Theodor Schwann) 彻底改变了生理学。 1838 年，施万在柏林协助约翰内斯·穆勒 (Johannes Müller)，研究了一系列看似无关的主题，如肌肉收缩、胃消化和腐败微生物学，确定了生命的基本单位。他宣称，动物和植物都是完全由细胞构成的。此外，施万不仅将细胞视为结构单位，而且将其视为生理因果因素。施万一下子摆脱了数百年历史的生命力，使生理学成为一门关于特定因素及其相应特定作用的科学。迄今为止，历史学家几乎没有解释这一革命性的举动。尽管施万一直是细胞理论史学中两本长篇传记和无数讨论的主题，但没有人试图理解使施万认识细胞的具体概念预设和实验实践。 1 同样，人们很少关注细胞理论更深层次的认识论后果，及其对生命实验科学进一步发展的深远影响。 2 下面，我将分析施万对细胞的发现与他在 1835 年至 1838 年间进行的其他生理学研究的关系。对于这样的史学努力，施万这一时期的研究笔记特别令人感兴趣。 3
Within three years, between 1835–1838, the young Theodor Schwann revolutionised physiology. Assisting Johannes Müller in Berlin, and working through a series of seemingly unrelated topics like muscle contraction, stomach digestion and the microbiology of putrefaction, Schwann in 1838 identified the elementary unit of life. Both animals and plants, he declared, are made solely from cells and of cells. Moreover, Schwann considered cells not only as structural units, but also as physiological causal factors. At a stroke, Schwann got rid of the centuries-old lifeforce, and made physiology a science of specific agents and their corresponding specific effects.Historians have hitherto hardly accounted for this revolutionary move. Although Schwann has been the subject of two full-length biographies and numerous discussions in the historiography of the cell theory, no attempt has been made to understand the specific conceptual presuppositions and experimental practices which enabled Schwann’s recognition of cells. 1 Similarly, very little attention has been given to the deeper epistemological consequences of a theory of cells, and to its far-reaching impact on the further development of an experimental science of life. 2 In the following, I will analyse Schwann’s discovery of cells in relation to his other physiological investigations, conducted between 1835 and 1838. For such a historiographical endeavour, Schwann’s research notes of this period are of special interest. 3