Core historiography on 19th century cell theory

In May 2022 Karl Matlin invited a few of us — Hanna Worliczek, Andrew Reynolds, Gina Surita, Anna Guerrero, and Jane Maienschein — out to the MBL to discuss our ideas for the future of the historiography of cell biology. I made some slides and pedantic comments. I thought I’d share my slides on what I’d consider to be core the scholarship on cell theory in the 19th century. If you see stuff that’s missing, email me (dan@dan-liu.net) and I’ll add it. (You can try using the comments section below, but I can’t guarantee I’ll see it.)

I’d argue there are three clear categories in this scholarship:

Core historiography on the origins of cell theory up to and around 1839:

Marc Klein, Histoire des origines de la théorie cellulaire (1936)
Arthur Hughes, A History of Cytology (1959)
Russell C. Maulitz, “Schwann’s Way: Cells and Crystals,” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (1971)
Works by L. S. Jacyna on German + British Romanticism and cell theory
- “Immanence or Transcendence: Theories of Life and Organization in Britain, 1790-1835,” Isis 74, no. 3 (September 1983): 311–29.
- “Romantic Thought and the Origins of Cell Biology,” in Romanticism and the Sciences, ed. Andrew Cunningham and Nicholas Jardine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 161–68.
- “‘A Host of Experienced Microscopists’: The Establishment of Histology in Nineteenth-Century Edinburgh,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 75, no. 2 (2001): 225–53.
- “Moral Fibre: The Negotiation of Microscopic Facts in Victorian Britain,” Journal of the History of Biology 36, no. 1 (2003): 39–85.
François Duchesneau Genèse de la théorie cellulaire (1987)
Willy Pelz, Zellenlehre: Der Einfluss Hugo von Mohls auf die Entwicklung der Zellenlehre, ed. Armin Geus and Irmgard Müller, Marburger Schriften zur Medizingeschichte 20 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1987; based on 1944 dissertation).
Henry Harris, The Birth of the Cell (1999)
Ohad Parnes, “From Agents to Cells: Theodor Schwann’s Research Notes of the Years 1835-1838,” in Reworking the Bench: Notebooks in the History of Science, ed. F. L. Holmes, Jürgen Renn, and Hans-Jörg Rheinberger (Kluwer 2003), 119–39.
Daniel Liu, “The Cell and Protoplasm as Container, Object, and Substance, 1835–1861,” Journal of the History of Biology 50, no. 4 (November 2017): 889–925.
Florence Vienne, “Worlds Conflicting: The Cell Theories of François-Vincent Raspail and Theodor Schwann,” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 47, no. 5 (Nov, 2017): 629–52.

Core historiography of 19th c. cell theory vis-à-vis development, growth, heredity, regeneration, reproduction, etc.:

John R. Baker’s 5-part “The Cell-Theory: a Restatement, History, and Critique,” in Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science,1948–1955
William Coleman, “Cell, Nucleus, and Inheritance” Proc. Am. Phil Soc 109, no. 3 (June 15, 1965): 124–58.
John Farley, Gametes and Spores (1982), on cell theory and theories of reproduction
Marsha Richmond on British unease with German cell theory:
- “T. H. Huxley’s Criticism of German Cell Theory: An Epigenetic and Physiological Interpretation of Cell Structure,” Journal of the History of Biology 33, no. 2 (October 2000): 247–89.
- “British Cell Theory on the Eve of Genetics,” Endeavour 25, no. 2 (June 2001): 55–60.
J. Andrew Mendelsohn, “Lives of the Cell,” Journal of the History of Biology 36 no. 1 (Apr 2003)
8+ articles by Fred Churchill from 1968–2010 on August Weismann and the history of chromosomal heredity, including:
- “August Weismann and a Break from Tradition,” JHB 1, no. 1 (1968): 91–112.
- “Hertwig, Weismann, and the Meaning of Reduction Division circa 1890,” Isis 61, no. 4 (December 1970): 428–57.
- “The History of Embryology as Intellectual History,” JHB 3, no. 1 (April 1970): 155–81.
- “From Heredity Theory to Vererbung: The Transmission Problem, 1850-1915,” Isis 78, no. 3 (September 1987): 337–64.
Fred Churchill, August Weismann: Development, Heredity, and Evolution (2015), arguably the most important work in this whole post
Florence Vienne on the longue durée history of spermatozoa/sperm cells (ongoing; see her excellent chapter “Eggs and Sperm as Germ Cells,” in Reproduction: Antiquity to the Present Day, Nick Hopwood, Rebecca Flemming, and Lauren Kassell, eds. (Cambridge University Press, 2018.)

Articles and chapters by Ariane Dröscher on 19th c. cytology:

Ariane Dröscher’s important body of work is fairly orthogonal to the historiography of cell biology as a whole, and her work has been pushing us to consider this history in novel ways. I wanted to highlight how broad and diverse her scholarship has been, so she got her own slide in my presentation last month.

“Microscopic Truths: The Multiple Realities of the Golgi Apparatus,” in L’esperimento Della Storia: Saggi in Onore Di Renato G. Mazzolini, ed. Massimiano Bucchi, Luca Ciancio, and Ariane Dröscher (Fondazione Museo Storico Trentino, 2015), 101–10
“Gregor Mendel, Franz Unger, Carl Nägeli and the Magic of Numbers,” History of Science 53, no. 4 (Dec 2015): 492–508,
“Images of Cell Trees, Cell Lines, and Cell Fates: The Legacy of Ernst Haeckel and August Weismann in Stem Cell Research,” History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 36, no. 2 (Oct 2014): 157–86,
“Was ist eine Zelle? Edmund B. Wilsons Diagramm als graphische Antwort,” Verhandlungen zur Geschichte und Theorie der Biologie 14 (2008): 1–12
“Edmund B. Wilson’s ‘The Cell’ and Cell Theory between 1896 and 1925,” HPLS 24, no. 3/4 (Jan 2002): 357–89.
Die Zellbiologie in Italien im 19. Jahrhundert, Acta Historica Leopoldina 26 (1996).