La centrifugation et la cellule. La déconstruction du protoplasme entre 1880 et 1910

Daniele Ghesquier-Pourcin (1)

1 REHSEIS (UMR_7596) - Recherches Epistémologiques et Historiques sur les Sciences Exactes et les Institutions Scientifiques

The history of centrifugation and the cell begins in the 1880s, with the history of experimental embryology. This scientific branch and cytology, had spectacular development in Germany, in the second half of the 19th century.During the period 1880-1900, cytologists discovered some of the particulate components of the cell cytoplasm : mitochondria, ergastoplasm end the Golgi apparatus. Today, these are known as the structural bases of life mechanisms and are called subcellular organites. Durin the same period, embryologists centrifuged eggs of living marine organisms and observed several substances in the embryo. But they abandoned the project without identifying the substances in light of the cytologists'structures. This coincided with the disappearance of the structures from the concept of vital mechanism. The structures reappeared in the concept, only some decades later, when another model for studying cellular contents was developped, again by means of centrifugation. I show that the failure of the embryologists'model was not the only factor accounting for the lack of interest in the cytologists'structures and that the theoretical status of matter was probably the determinant factor.

Mots clés: cellule; centrifugation; protoplasme; organites; cytologie; embryologie expérimentale; station de naples

Daniele Ghesquier-Pourcin. La centrifugation et la cellule. La déconstruction du protoplasme entre 1880 et 1910. Revue d'Histoire des Sciences, 2002, 55/3, pp.323-377. ⟨hal-00008275⟩