General Cytology. A Textbook of Cellular Structure and Function for Students of Biology and Medicine by Cowdry, Edmund V - 1924

Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1924. First printing. THE BIRTH OF MODERN CELL BIOLOGY: SCARCE FIRST EDITION LANDMARK COLLECTION OF CONTRIBUTIONS BY AMERICA'S LEADING BIOLOGISTS. 10 inches tall thick hardcover, original blue cloth binding, bookplate of Russell B. MacFarlane to front paste-down, [i-vii], 754 pp, many text figures and 9 black & white photographic plates. Wear to covers, corners worn, text unmarked. Good plus. TABLE OF CONTENTS: I. Introduction; II. Some General Aspects of the Chemistry of Cells; III. Permeability of the Cell to Diffusing Substances; IV. Reactivity of the Cell; V. The Physical Structure of Protoplasm as Determined by Microdissection and Injection; VI. Mitochondria, Golgi Apparatus, and Chromidial Substance; VII. Behavior of Cells in Tissue Cultures; VIII. Fertilization; IX. Cellular Differentiation: X. The Chromosome Theory of Heredity; XI. Mendelian Heredity in Relation to Cytology. Cited by J Maienschein in Embryos Under the Microscope 2014: "General Cytology included essays by most of the leading biologists of the time, who were working on understanding the chemical composition of cells and the actions of permeability as substances moved through the cells and across the membranes to the external environment. Cell reactivity to the environment was another important emphasis. By the 1920s, it was becoming clear that cells could not be considered mosaic tiles that aggregated with others to make up the whole organism. Rather, each cell was itself a dynamic, interactive whole, and their interactions raised many questions that Cowdry's contributors had begun to articulate." Review of Visions of Cell Biology: Reflections Inspired by Cowdry's General Cytology, edited by KS Matlin, J Maienschein, and MD Laubichler, Chicago, 2018: "Cowdrv's General Cytology grew out of gatherings at Woods Hole of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century luminaries in the nascent field of cell biology, pioneers who recognized the need to assemble and curate the current state of: cellular knowledge. While it seems somewhat paradoxical to suggest that a book about a ninety-year-old book is timely, it is nonetheless quite accurate. It is extremely useful in the midst of today's breathtakingly fast-paced molecular dissections of myriad cellular processes to take a moment to understand from whence came the paradigms that motivated the field and to appreciate how and why those paradigms have evolved." - MJ Caplan, Yale School of Medicine. EDMUND VINCENT COWDRY (1888 - 1975) attended the University of Toronto, graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in 1909, and then moved to Chicago to pursue graduate work in anatomy. After receiving his PhD in 1913, Cowdry was appointed as an associate in anatomy at Johns Hopkins University. In 1921 Cowdry became an associate member at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York. Before the era of formalized postdoctoral training, this kind of appointment was an important career step for young biologists, and it was formative for Cowdry. Simon Flexner, the director of the Rockefeller Institute at that time, was interested in recruiting anatomists not with an interest in traditional morphological description, but with skills applicable to researching the cellular basis of pathologies. The application of cytology to questions of physiology and pathology opened a chapter of Cowdry's career that was dedicated to the study of disease mechanisms at the level of the cell. Cowdry founded the discipline of gerontology in the United States in the 1930s. He was also involved in the worldwide spread and popularization of the idea of the scientific study of aging as a distinct scientific and medical field. However, his long career and prolific writings played a role in many fields of twentieth-century life sciences, including cytology, eugenics, bacteriology, and cancer research. Scientific posterity tends to reward discoverers of objects and processes but leaves little room for those scientists who play an important organizational, administrative, or editorial role in the production of scientific knowledge. Cowdry was one such synthesizing figure, repeatedly bringing many diverse researchers and their work together into new configurations. His facilitation of major meetings, resulting in many edited volumes in numerous editions, served as points of consolidation and mobilization in several areas of twentieth-century life science.