THE BEGINNINGS - 19TH CENTURY

FRANÇOIS-VINCENT RASPAIL

In 1814, the work of J. J. Colin (1784-1865) and H.F. Gaultier de Claubry (1792-1878) showed that iodine colors starch blue. F.S. Stromeyer (1776-1835) confirmed this test in 1815, but none of them thought to apply the test microscopically. François-Vincent Raspail (Figure 1) applied the iodine test for starches to sections of grasses, specifically for the elucidation of the development of the embryo, and published a paper on his findings in 1825.  For his microscope, Raspail had the optician Deleuil in Paris build for him a small simple microscope, a modified Cuff/Ellis type.  In the Spring of 1826, he found new reagents that permitted the detection of sugar, oil, and albumin within the cell.  Also, he developed microchemical tests for resin and protein, all the while describing the colors and reactions.

click image to enlarge (161K) Figure 1. François-Vincent Raspail. From Dora B. Weiner's Raspail; Scientist and Reformer (Columbia University Press, 1968).

click image to enlarge (180K) Figure 2. The term "chemical microscopy" used by Raspail in an 1827 publication.

In 1827, he demonstrated the presence of silica in Spongilla, and of calcium oxalate in the starch of monocotyledons, and published his results [Raspail, François-Vincent (1827)].  In this publication he introduces the term "chemical microscopy" (Figure 2).  One of the two plates (Figure 3) in this publication illustrates the silica and the calcium oxalate.  With these and numerous other articles, Raspail founded both histochemistry and microchemistry.  His series of articles culminated in the 1833 publication of his book (Figure 4), Nouveau Systeme de Chimie Organique…[Raspail, François-Vincent (1833)]. which is described in Duveen as the first work in which the microscope was successfully employed in organic chemistry. In the first chapter he discusses the theory, construction, and manipulation of the microscope, and illustrates this in one of the twelve engraved plates (Figure 5).  One of the six hand-colored plates (Figure 6) illustrates microchemical reaction products and crystals found in botanical tissues.  In chapter after chapter he reports the microscopical effects of employing various acids, bases, and salts to plant and animal tissue.  On the basis of his chemical findings, he proposed a system of classification based on physiological function, rather than morphology, as Linnaeus had done.  An English translation of this book was published in 1834 [Raspail, François-Vincent (1834)].  What makes this book particularly remarkable is the fact that it was written while Raspail was in prison. Raspail was a political activist, and spent almost three years in prison, and wrote as many books while confined. Dora B. Weiner has written an excellent biography [Weiner, Dora B. (1968)] of Raspail, and Chapter 4 is of special interest, because it was written in collaboration with Simone Raspail, François-Vincent's great-granddaughter, who, as a modern biologist and pharmacist, repeated some of Raspail's experiments with one of his own microscopes.

click image to enlarge (139K) Figure 3. Silica and calcium oxalate illustrated by Raspail in 1827.

click image to enlarge (86K) Figure 4. Title page of Raspail's Nouveau Systéme de Chimie Organique (1833).

click image to enlarge (125K) Figure 5. Plate illustrating the theory and construction of the microscope, from Raspail's Nouveau Systéme de Chimie Organique (1833).

 

click image to enlarge (159K) Figure 6. One of six hand-colored plates from Raspail's Nouveau Systéme de Chimie Organique (1833).