Contents -- Translator's Note -- Foreword -- 1. Introduction and Some Important Dates in Pfeffer's Life -- 2. Basic Perception of Natural Science -- a) A Life Devoted to Science -- b) All Processes of Life Have a Physical Explanation -- c) The Complexity of Life's Processes Is Often Overlooked -- d) Biological Structures Do Not Have Sharp Boundaries. There Is no "Realization of An Idea" -- 3. Pharmacy - Chemistry - Botany - Physiology - Cell Biology - Molecular Biology -- a) In the Pharmacy -- b) Botanist -- c) Physiology -- d) Molecular Biology, Micelles, Macro-Molecules -- e) Only a Laboratory Botanist? -- 4. Mimosa, Staminal Filaments, Osmometer, Plasma Membrane -- a) From Staminal Filaments to the Osmometer -- b) The Plasma Membrane -- c) The Contractile Cell -- 5. The Plasma Membrane - "The Gate Keeper in the Service of the Protoplast" -- a) Properties of the Plasma Membrane -- b) Advances and Reversals after Pfeffer. Membranes Play an Active Role -- 6. The Single-Celled Organism Has the Ability to Do Everything. A Few Letters Are Adequate for the Genetic Code -- 7. Sensitivities of Single-Celled Organisms -- 8. Triggering within the Organism -- a) "Stimulation" -- b) "Senses" -- 9. Regulation and Feedback in the Organism -- a) Feedback, Law of Mass Action -- b) Adaptation of Enzyme Formation to the Substrate -- c) Oscillations about Equilibrium -- 10. Activation, Regulation, Feedback Applied to the Technology Used for Physiological Studies -- 11. Energetics -- a) There is no Special Vital Force -- b) Life without Oxygen -- c) Energy Conversion of the Cell at Rest -- d) An Organism Does Not Have a Closed System of Energy -- 12. Endogenous Diurnal and Annual Periodicity -- a) Circadian Leaf Movements -- b) Hereditary or Conditioned Behaviour? The Darwin-Pfeffer Controversy -- c) The Self-regulatory Periodicity of Inherent Factors.

d) Advances and Reversals after Pfeffer -- e) Self-regulation of Annual Periodicity -- 13. Correlations: The Study of "Irrelevant Details" with Unexpected Consequences -- 14. Flaws in Literary Style -- 15. Purkinje - J. Müller - Helmholtz - Sachs - Pfeffer -- 16. The Spread of "Pfeffergewächse" [Pepper Plants] throughout the World -- a) Pfeffer's 265 Students -- b) The High Repute of Botany in Germany at the Turn of the Century -- 17. Where Did This Great Spirit Originate? His Character -- a) The Ancestors -- b) Character Traits -- 18. Duties within the University -- a) General -- b) Hermann Ullrich : Reminiscences on Studies with Pfeffer (a Personal Report) -- 19. Honours and a Sad End -- a) Honours -- b) Pessimism and Depression -- c) 1918-1920 -- d) The Legacy -- 20. In Retrospect -- 21. Epilogue -- Notes -- Publications by Pfeffer -- Publications by Collaborators -- Visiting Scholars -- Biographical Notes -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Index of Subject and Places -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Z.