Hugh Ross's Curious Lymphocyte Experiments

It is now almost 100 years since Hugh Campbell Ross began his experiments on white blood cells and cancer. By suspending peripheral blood cells in a solution of agar gel, he was able to observe changes in them provoked by various natural and artificial substances, which he named auxetics, kinetics, or augmentors, depending on the effects they produced. After his early experience he focused his attention particularly on lymphocytes in peripheral blood samples; he claimed to have observed rapid division in them, although at that time they were looked upon as end cells without a future. He contended that his results challenged what had become the orthodox view of the role of the nucleus in mitosis, asserting that cytologists had been led astray by relying on examination of fixed, dead structures. When doubt was cast on his claim to have induced cell division, his brother Ronald, Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine, came to his defense, but to no avail, and although he continued his experiments for a number of years they were quietly forgotten. Fifty years later the occurrence of mitotic division of peripheral blood lymphocytes was established beyond any doubt by Nowell and Hirschhorn.