Robert Hooke (1635–1703) is commonly credited for introducing the term cell into biology when describing the microscopic structure of plant tissues in his Micrographia of 1665. This narrative ignores that, at the time, cell was an established term denoting linearly arranged elements of structures with functions in the storage, modification and transport of materials (e.g. the uterus, colon, brain, etc.). In analogy to the cells of these organs, Hooke interpreted plant cells as elements of continuous tubes for the storage and regulated movement of vital fluids. Hooke also was one of the few British natural philosophers who regarded ‘serpentine-stones’, the fossilized chambered shells of cephalopods (e.g. ammonites) that seemed to lack living counterparts, as remnants of organisms. He considered Nautilus a living serpentine-stone and referred to the chambers in its shell as cells, postulating that gas and liquid were transported along and stored within these cavities for buoyancy regulation. Hooke published this theory in 1696, but probably developed it much earlier. In Micrographia, he described ammonite cells just before plant cells, suggesting an overlooked rhetoric function of his report of cells in plants. By visualizing microscopic equivalents of macroscopic cellular structures for the first time, Hooke reinforced the common notion that living matter generally was characterized by such structures. Consequently, the presence of cells in serpentine-stones implicitly supported his organismic interpretation of these fossils.

罗伯特·胡克（Robert Hooke，1635-1703）因在其 1665 年的《Micrographia》中描述植物组织的微观结构时将“细胞”一词引入生物学而被普遍认为。这种叙述忽略了，在当时，“细胞”是一个既定术语，表示植物中线性排列的元素。具有储存、修饰和运输物质功能的结构（例如子宫、结肠、大脑等）。与这些器官的细胞类似，胡克将植物细胞解释为用于储存和调节重要液体运动的连续管的元素。胡克也是少数将“蛇纹石”视为有机体残余物的英国自然哲学家之一，“蛇纹石”是头足类动物（例如菊石）的化石腔室贝壳，似乎缺乏活体对应物。他认为鹦鹉螺是一块活的蛇纹石，并将其外壳中的腔室称为细胞，假设气体和液体沿着这些腔室运输并储存在这些腔室中以调节浮力。胡克于 1696 年发表了这一理论，但发展它的时间可能要早得多。在《Micrographia》中，他在植物细胞之前描述了菊石细胞，这表明他对植物细胞的报告的修辞功能被忽视了。通过首次可视化宏观细胞结构的微观等效物，胡克强化了这样的普遍观念：生命物质通常以这种结构为特征。因此，蛇纹石中细胞的存在隐含地支持了他对这些化石的有机解释。