6
E . N . W I L L M E R
cinematography that mitochondria move about, change shape, and
divide within the living, untreated and undamaged cell.
During the 1920's there were thus two main streams of research
being pursued by means of Tissue Culture methods, one concerned
primarily with problems of growth, cell nutrition and cell multiplication, the other more quietly investigating the differentiation of cells and
the organized development of embryonic tissue.
While Rienhoffin 1922, and Drew, in 1923, showed that embryonic
kidney could differentiate in vitro and that the epithelium grown in
vitro could develop tubular structures more easily in the presence of
connective tissue elements, thus confirming earlier observations by
Champy (1914), it was Chlopin (1922), Ebeling and Fischer (1922) and
Fischer (1922) who more or less simultaneously called attention to the
differentiation of cells which went on within the central masses of
mixed colonies of fibroblasts and epithelial cells. It may have been
these latter experiments which caught the imagination of T. S. P.
Strangeways whose extraordinary zeal and devotion to fundamental
medical research, particularly at the cellular level, led to his initiating
and founding a research hospital upon what nowadays would seem to
have been a most inadequate shoe-string. Nevertheless, his efforts were
rewarded, for this—at one time private—research hospital now enjoys
a world-wide reputation as the Strangeways Research Laboratory and
is a centre of cell biology for investigators from all over the world. Be
that as it may, the self-differentiation of embryonic limbs, eye and ear
rudiments was early followed by Strangeways and his team (1926),
which included Honor B. Fell, and a major advance was made by the
use of the so-called watch-glass technique for "organ culture" (Fell and
Robison, 1929). Indeed this technique, and a similar one developed by
Maximow (1925), were really the beginnings of "organ culture", as
opposed to "tissue culture" and "cell culture" though, as mentioned
above, Thomson had pioneered in this direction some ten years earlier.
The watch-glass technique was destined to develop as the dominant
method for investigating the problems of embryogenesis and organogenesis. It has been extensively used by such investigators as
Waddington (1932), Spratt (1947), Wolff (1952) and many others, and
is now the basis for one of the major fields of study (Chapter 15). It, or some
modification of it, is also the method of choice for numerous physiological
problems, such as the actions of vitamins and hormones on cells and
tissues, and many related problems in endocrinology (Chapters 16, 17).
Meanwhile, in the 1920's, the facility with which cells in tissue
culture could be directly observed in the living state invited the application of the microdissection apparatus, then recently developed to assist
the already capable hands of Robert Chambers (1921, 1924, 1931), and
E . N . W I L L M E R
cinematography that mitochondria move about, change shape, and
divide within the living, untreated and undamaged cell.
During the 1920's there were thus two main streams of research
being pursued by means of Tissue Culture methods, one concerned
primarily with problems of growth, cell nutrition and cell multiplication, the other more quietly investigating the differentiation of cells and
the organized development of embryonic tissue.
While Rienhoffin 1922, and Drew, in 1923, showed that embryonic
kidney could differentiate in vitro and that the epithelium grown in
vitro could develop tubular structures more easily in the presence of
connective tissue elements, thus confirming earlier observations by
Champy (1914), it was Chlopin (1922), Ebeling and Fischer (1922) and
Fischer (1922) who more or less simultaneously called attention to the
differentiation of cells which went on within the central masses of
mixed colonies of fibroblasts and epithelial cells. It may have been
these latter experiments which caught the imagination of T. S. P.
Strangeways whose extraordinary zeal and devotion to fundamental
medical research, particularly at the cellular level, led to his initiating
and founding a research hospital upon what nowadays would seem to
have been a most inadequate shoe-string. Nevertheless, his efforts were
rewarded, for this—at one time private—research hospital now enjoys
a world-wide reputation as the Strangeways Research Laboratory and
is a centre of cell biology for investigators from all over the world. Be
that as it may, the self-differentiation of embryonic limbs, eye and ear
rudiments was early followed by Strangeways and his team (1926),
which included Honor B. Fell, and a major advance was made by the
use of the so-called watch-glass technique for "organ culture" (Fell and
Robison, 1929). Indeed this technique, and a similar one developed by
Maximow (1925), were really the beginnings of "organ culture", as
opposed to "tissue culture" and "cell culture" though, as mentioned
above, Thomson had pioneered in this direction some ten years earlier.
The watch-glass technique was destined to develop as the dominant
method for investigating the problems of embryogenesis and organogenesis. It has been extensively used by such investigators as
Waddington (1932), Spratt (1947), Wolff (1952) and many others, and
is now the basis for one of the major fields of study (Chapter 15). It, or some
modification of it, is also the method of choice for numerous physiological
problems, such as the actions of vitamins and hormones on cells and
tissues, and many related problems in endocrinology (Chapters 16, 17).
Meanwhile, in the 1920's, the facility with which cells in tissue
culture could be directly observed in the living state invited the application of the microdissection apparatus, then recently developed to assist
the already capable hands of Robert Chambers (1921, 1924, 1931), and