To shut up in a cell; place in a cell.n. One of the water-tight compartments into which the space between the inner and outer shells of a war-vessel, or other metal ship, is divided.n. In archaeology, the inner chamber of megalithic structures, which consists of a space walled by large stones and covered with a slab.n. In spectroscopy, a small glass vessel with parallel sides designed to hold liquids for examination by transmitted light.n. In kinematics, a symmetrical combination of an even number of links.n. the dependent nature of the latter and the primacy of the cell; and the resolution of the physiological activities of the multicellular organism into those of the constituent cells. See plastid, Morgan, and person.n. According to a second view, which is sometimes called the organism standpoint, the essential primary distinctive characteristic of a multicellular organism is its individuality or unity, while its composition out of cells is an indication of its organization, but not the means through which organization has been brought about; its individuality is directly comparable with, or of the same grade as, that of a unicellular organism, and there is no reason why it may not have arisen, in the remote past, through the growth and increasing complexity of a unicellular ancestor which gradually became multicellular in adaptation to its increasing size and complexity. The unity of the egg is regarded as the same as that of the adult and as regulating instead of being controlled by cell-division, which makes no change in the grade of its individuality. Physiologically it is regarded as a coordinated whole, not as an aggregation of cells.n. While there is much to be said in support of each of these opinions, there are grave objections to the acceptance of either of them without compromises with the other, and there is a third view which regards the distinction between the cell standpoint and the organism standpoint as dependent upon the purpose for which the comparison is made, and as in the mind of the interpreter instead of in nature. For many of the purposes of the histologist, the pathologist, the embryologist, and the physiologist the multicellular organism is best considered as a cell-community, while for other purposes it is best considered as a unit or coordinated whole. From the morphological standpoint the cell may properly be regarded apart from the organism, as an individual, but it is not to be forgotten that it is by abstraction that this is done. Physiologically the cell is an individual only when actually isolated and independent of an organism. From this point of view every abstraction is a blunder.n. One of the multi-nucleate cells which occur in the red marrow of the bones, or one of the ganglionic cells in the deeper layers of the brain-cortex.
