THEODOR SCHWANN 249 



instance of plants, already led to the conjecture that the cells are really 

 the organisms, and that the whole plant is an aggregrate of these 

 organisms arranged according to certain laws. But since the elemen- 

 tary parts of animals bear exactly similar relations, the individuality 

 of an entire animal would thus be lost ; and yet precisely upon the in- 

 dividuality of the whole animal does the assumption rest, that it 

 possesses a single fundamental power operating in accordance with 

 a definite idea. 



Meanwhile, we cannot altogether lay aside teleological views if all 

 phenomena are not clearly explicable by the physical view. It is, 

 however, unnecessary to do so, because an explanation, according to 

 the teleological view, is only admissible when the physical can be 

 shown to be impossible. In any case it conduces much more to the 

 object of science to strive, at least, to adopt the physical explanation. 

 And I would repeat that, when speaking of a physical explanation 

 of organic phenomena, it is not necessary to understand an explanation 

 by known physical powers, such, for instance, as that universal refuge 

 electricity, and the like ; but an explanation by means of powers which 

 operate like the physical powers, in accordance with strict laws of 

 blind necessity, whether they be also to be found in inorganic nature 

 or not. 



We set out, therefore, with the supposition that an organized body 

 is not produced by a fundamental power which is guided in its opera- 

 tion by a definite idea, but is developed, according to bhnd laws of 

 necessity, by powers which, like those of inorganic nature, are 

 established by the very existence of matter. As the elementary 

 materials of organic nature are not different from those of the in- 

 organic kingdom, the source of the organic phenomena can only 

 reside in another combination of these materials, whether it be in a 

 peculiar mode of union of the elementary atoms to form atoms of the 

 second order, or in the arrangement of these conglomerate molecules 

 when forming either the separate morphological elementary parts of 

 organisms, or an entire organism. We have here to do with the 

 latter question solely, whether the cause of organic phenomena lies 

 in the whole organism, or in its separate elementary parts. If this 

 question can be answered, a further inquiry still remains as to whether 

 the organism or its elementary parts possess this power through the 



