THEORY OF THE CELLS. 191 
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 sepa- 
rate 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 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 
organic 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 elementary 
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 ele- 
mentary part is possessed of an independent power, an inde- 
pendent 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 attracting 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 cor- 
rect one, we must summon to our aid the results of the pre- 
vious 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 essen- 
1 The word ‘reciprocal action” must here be taken in its widest sense, as 
implying the preparation of material by one elementary part, which another requires 
for its own nutrition. 
