生物学 1665

显微图谱：以放大镜对微小物体所作的若干生理学描述（显微术）

罗伯特·胡克

透过镜片，一片软木竟是无数空盒子——他称之为「细胞」。

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In depth · the introduction

他把一片软木削得薄到几近于无，举到一台自制的显微镜前——竟看见这寻常之物，是由千百万个空空的小盒子砌成的。他把它们叫作「细胞」。

核心想法

1665 年，没有人知道生物在极近处究竟由什么构成。罗伯特·胡克，供职于伦敦那家刚刚成立的皇家学会，造出了强力的显微镜，并把它对准寻常之物：一只跳蚤、一枚针尖、一只苍蝇的眼睛、一片软木。透过镜片，软木根本不是实心的。它是一格格有壁小室的蜂巢，像一摞空空的盒子。

胡克需要一个词来称呼这些小房间，于是把它们叫作 cells（细胞）。他甚至做了算术：沿着一条线数过去，估算出一立方英寸的软木里竟有逾十亿个。其实他看到的，是细胞死后留下的、空空的壁——但这个名字留了下来，并成为一切生命基本单元的称谓。

它是如何诞生的

胡克是个永不安分的发明家，也是皇家学会第一任「实验主管」——拿薪水、每周都得想出新演示的那个人。他亲手磨制镜片，设计自己的显微镜，用一只盛水的玻璃球把火焰之光会聚起来照亮标本，又熬过许多长夜，把所见之物一一画下。成果，便是《显微图谱》，一时轰动：一部又大又美的书，其中可折叠的版画把一只巨大的跳蚤、一只骇人的虱子，头一回呈到寻常读者眼前，让他们第一次看见那不可见之物。塞缪尔·佩皮斯称它是自己读过的最巧妙的书，捧着它一直坐到凌晨两点。

胡克也以脾气火爆著称。他曾与艾萨克·牛顿争执：究竟是谁最先领悟了引力如何随距离而减弱；而他自己那条弹性定律，至今仍以他为名。才华横溢又好与人争——他没有留下一幅经证实的肖像，却留下了「细胞」这个词。

它为何重要

这正是生物学得到它最小构件、并为之命名的时刻。我们今天关于「生命由细胞构成」的一切说法，都从这里开始。同样重要的是，《显微图谱》展示了一件仪器能做什么：胡克主张，藉由「为天然的器官添上人造的器官」，我们便能发现一个肉眼永远无法触及的「新的、可见的世界」。这个许诺——合适的工具，能揭开现实隐藏的一层——正是现代科学的引擎。

一个可以想象的画面

想想一块蜜蜂的蜂巢，或者一张气泡膜。远看，它像一整块结实的板。凑近了，它不过是一圈圈围着空无的壁——成千上万个小室，紧挨着排在一起。胡克的软木恰是如此：一个绝大部分是空的结构，正因如此，软木才那么轻、能漂浮、能封住瓶口。壁是真的；房间是真的；而「房间」——拉丁文里的 cella——正是 cell（细胞）的意思。

它的位置

胡克处在科学革命的破晓时分，与牛顿（其《自然哲学的数学原理》也将出现在本图书馆中）以及荷兰布商安东尼·范·列文虎克同时——后者很快用更简单的镜片，看见了活的「微动物」，那是最早被看见的细菌与原生动物。胡克给了生物学「细胞」这个词；将近两个世纪后，施莱登、施旺与魏尔肖把它发展为细胞学说——一切生命皆是细胞，而细胞只能源自细胞。从那里，这条线索径直通向孟德尔的遗传，以及每一个细胞之中的 DNA。

The original document

Original source text

序言——为感官添上人造的器官

Robert Hooke · Micrographia · 1665 · The Preface

The next care to be taken, in respect of the Senses, is a supplying of their infirmities with Instruments, and, as it were, the adding of artificial Organs to the natural; this in one of them has been of late years accomplisht with prodigious benefit to all sorts of useful knowledge, by the invention of Optical Glasses.

By the means of Telescopes, there is nothing so far distant but may be represented to our view; and by the help of Microscopes, there is nothing so small, as to escape our inquiry; hence there is a new visible World discovered to the understanding.

第十八则观察——软木的肌理

Observ. XVIII · Of the Schematisme or Texture of Cork, and of the Cells and Pores of some other such frothy Bodies

I took a good clear piece of Cork, and with a Pen-knife sharpen'd as keen as a Razor, I cut a piece of it off … I with the same sharp Penknife, cut off from the former smooth surface an exceeding thin piece of it, and placing it on a black object Plate, because it was it self a white body, and casting the light on it with a deep plano convex Glass, I could exceeding plainly perceive it to be all perforated and porous, much like a Honey-comb, but that the pores of it were not regular.

Next, in that these pores, or cells, were not very deep, but consisted of a great many little Boxes, separated out of one continued long pore, by certain Diaphragms, as is visible by the Figure B, which represents a sight of those pores split the long-ways.

I no sooner discern'd these (which were indeed the first microscopical pores I ever saw, and perhaps, that were ever seen, for I had not met with any Writer or Person, that had made any mention of them before this)…

数算细胞

Observ. XVIII · the arithmetic of the pores

But, to return to our Observation. I told several lines of these pores, and found that there were usually about threescore of these small Cells placed end-ways in the eighteenth part of an Inch in length, whence I concluded there must be neer eleven hundred of them, or somewhat more then a thousand in the length of an Inch, and therefore in a square Inch above a Million, or 1166400. and in a Cubick Inch, above twelve hundred Millions, or 1259712000.

the substance of Cork is altogether fill'd with Air, and that that Air is perfectly enclosed in little Boxes or Cells distinct from one another.

[ … ]

Robert Hooke · Curator of Experiments to the Royal Society · London, 1665