2S0 CLASSICS OF MODERN SCIENCE 

 peculiar mode of combination of the conglomerate molecules^ or 

 through the mode in which the elementary atoms are united into con- 

 glomerate molecules. 



We may, then, form the two following ideas of the cause of or- 

 ganic phenomena, such as growth, &c. First, that the cause resides 

 in the totality of the organism. By the combination of the molecules 

 into a systematic whole, such as the organism is in every stage of its 

 development, a power is engendered, which enables such an organism 

 to take up fresh material from without, and appropriate it either to 

 the formation of new elementary parts, or to the growth of those 

 already present. Here, therefore, the cause of the growth of the ele- 

 mentary parts resides in the totality of the organism. The other 

 mode of explanation is, that growth does not ensue from a power 

 resident in the entire organism, but that each separate elementary part 

 is possessed of an independent power, an independent life, so to 

 speak ; in other words, the molecules in each separate elementary part 

 are so combined as to set free a power by which it is capable of at- 

 tracting new molecules, and so increasing, and the whole organism 

 subsists only by means of the reciprocal action of the single elementary 

 parts. So that here the single elementary parts only exert an active 

 influence on nutrition, and totality of the organism may indeed be a 

 condition, but is not in this view a cause. 



In order to determine which of these two views is the correct one, 

 we must summon to our aid the results of the previous investigation. 

 We have seen that all organized bodies are composed of essentially 

 similar parts, namely, of cells ; that these cells are formed and grow in 

 accordance with essentially similar laws ; and, therefore, that these 

 processes must, in every instance, be produced by the same powers. 

 Now, if we find that some of these elementary parts, not differing 

 from the others, are capable of separating themselves from the organ- 

 ism, and pursuing an independent growth, we may thence conclude 

 that each of the other elementary parts, each cell, is already possessed 

 of power to take up fresh molecules and growth ; and that, therefore, 

 every elementary part possesses a power of its own, an independent 

 life, by means of which it would be enabled to develop itself independ- 

 ently, if the relations which it bore to external parts were but similar 

 to those in which it stands in the organism. The ova of animals af- 

 ford us example of such independent cells, growing apart from the 



