Dröscher Ariane
History of Science Unit and Historical Archives, Stazione Zoologica A. Dohrn, Villa Comunale, 80121 Naples, Italy.
Hist Philos Life Sci. 2002;24(3-4):357-89. doi: 10.1080/03919710210001714473.
Edmund Beecher Wilson is generally celebrated for his contribution to chromosome theory and genetics, whereas opinion concerning his cytological thinking is often restricted to the idea that he provided evidence for the dominant role of the nucleus. But Wilson's cell theory was much more. It was a child of the German Zellforschung, and its attempt to provide a comprehensive cellular answer to a wide range of biological and physiological questions. Wilson developed a corpuscular, micromeristic and preformistic concept, and treated the cell as an organism subject to ontogenetic and phylogenetic processes. He defended his comprehensive theory even in the 1920's, when cytological research had become specialised and directed at more practical goals. For many of his younger readers this concept might have seemed antiquated, but today many of its features sound surprisingly modern.
埃德蒙·比彻·威尔逊通常因其对染色体理论和遗传学的贡献而受到赞誉，而对于他的细胞学思想，人们的看法往往局限于认为他为细胞核的主导作用提供了证据。但威尔逊的细胞理论远不止于此。它是德国细胞研究的产物，试图从细胞层面全面回答一系列生物学和生理学问题。威尔逊提出了一种微粒、微观和预成论的概念，并将细胞视为一个经历个体发育和系统发育过程的有机体。即使在20世纪20年代，细胞学研究已经变得专业化并朝着更实际的目标发展时，他仍捍卫自己的全面理论。对他的许多年轻读者来说，这个概念可能看起来过时了，但如今它的许多特征听起来却惊人地现代。
