The effect of cell division on the shape and size of hexagonal cells TOGETHER WITH 6 additional offprints by Lewis, Frederic Thomas - 1926 - 1949

Anatomical Record, National Academy of Sciences, 1926 - 1949. First editions.

1926-1949 SEVEN OFFPRINTS ON CELL DIVISION AND CELL SHAPE IN PLANTS AND ANIMALS BY LEGENDARY HARVARD EMBRYOLOGIST AND MORPHOLOGIST FREDERIC T. LEWIS, ONE INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY HIM.

1)The effect of cell division on the shape and size of hexagonal cells. Anat. Rec., 33: 331-355 (196);
2) The correlation between cell division and the shapes and sizes of prismatic cells in the epidermis of Cucumis. Anat. Rec, 38: 341-376 (1928);
3) A volumetric study of growth and cell division in two types of epitheium——the longitudinally prismatic epidermal cells of Tradescantia and the radially prismatic epidermal cells of Cucumis. Anat. Rec, 47: 59-99 (1930);
4) A comparison between the mosaic of polygons in a film of artificial emulsion and the pattern of simple epithelium in surface view (cucumber epidermis and human amnion). Anat. Rec., 50: 235-265 (1931);
5) Mathematically precise features of epithelial mosaics: observations on the endothelium of capillaries. Anat. Rec., 55: 323-341 (1933);
6) The correlation in shape and size between epidermal and subepidermal cells. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 35: 506-512 (1949). Offprints 1-6 with handstamp of F. G. Lier to cover.
7) The shape of the tracheids in the pine. Am. J. -Botany, 22:741-762, 1935.
Inscribed on cover to "Professor Harris Hancock, with the Compliments of Frederic T. Lewis."
All offprints with text and figures unmarked, very good.

FREDERIC THOMAS LEWIS (1875 - 1951) was essentially a morphologist. He was primarily interested in the patterns of Nature and he devoted his life to reproducing and interpreting these patterns. He had "morphological sense" — an instinct for seeing order in apparent chaos — the gift possessed by all the great classical morphologists. Lewis studied at Harvard College (AB magna cum laude, 1897; M.D. cum laude, 1901). His embryological research at the Harvard Medical School was based upon the Harvard Collection of human embryos, pig, and rabbit embryos. He also taught embryology at the medical school for 40 years. In 1923, he embarked upon a problem which was to occupy his attention increasingly until his death. "Like Durer's 'Melancholia' I have reflected geometrical shapes. These have been the forms assumed by the liquid drops of which plant and animal bodies are built." Apparently the shape which such cells assume when surrounded and compressed by similar cells had never been determined by observation, though frequently a subject for inference. The pith of the elder was chosen, sectioned at 10 um, drawn under the projection lantern and enlarged to 500 diameters. "After all the contacts had been studied and recorded, the models were made in wax by Ethel S. Lewis —a task requiring patience and skill beyond that at the author's disposal." In 100 cells the average number of contacts was 13.97. Two years later, Lewis had extended the observations to animal cells, finding that 100 human fat cells had an average of 14.01 facets. It is to be regretted that Lewis could not have finished the article he started to write in 1951 entitled: "The basic geometrical plan in the structure of cellular tissue." It would have been instructive to see how he interpreted the expanding data. With characteristic modesty and appreciation of other's contributions he writes in his introduction to the uncompleted article: From the study of 100 cells of elder pith in serial sections, and the reconstruction of 42 of them by the wax-plate method, it was shown that the average cells are "tetrakaidecahedra modified, especially through cell division, in rather definite ways." Although not a single cell was found with 14 facets 8 of which were hexagonal and 6 quadrilateral, as in the Kelvin pattern for the uniform division of space into polyhedra of minimal surface, it was stated that the models "seem to show convincingly that such is their typical shape, or the form from which they may all have been derived." In 1946, Sir D'Arcy Thompson wrote to Lewis stating that he had at once read his "very lucid paper" (of that date) adding——"If I am spared to see another edition of 'Growth and Form' through the press, this subject and your own prolonged and profound contributions to it, will be better treated than before." PROVENANCE (offprint no. 7): HARRIS HANCOCK (1867 – 1944) was a mathematics professor at the University of Cincinnati who worked on algebraic number theory and related areas. He graduated from the University of Virginia's school of mathematics in 1886. He then received an AB from Johns Hopkins, PhD from the University of Berlin and ScD from the University of Paris. He then taught at the University of Chicago for six years, and in 1900 he came to the University of Cincinnati as the head of the department of mathematics. Here he published a series of books that had great impact on American mathematics.