THEORY OF THE CELLS. 215 
in such a way as to present as extensive a surface as possible 
to the atmospheric air. ‘This is the condition of plants, which 
require for their growth that the individual cells should come 
into contact with the surrounding medium in a similar manner, 
if not in the same degree as occurs in a crystal tree, and in 
them indeed the cells unite into a whole organism in a form 
much resembling a crystal tree. But in animals the circulation 
renders the contact of the individual cells with the surrounding 
medium superfluous, and they may have more compact forms, 
even though the laws by which the cells arrange themselves 
are essentially the same. 
The view then that organisms are nothing but the form 
under which substances capable of imbibition crystallize, ap- 
pears to be compatible with the most important phenomena of 
organic life, and may be so far admitted, that it is a possible 
hypothesis, or attempt towards an explanation of these pheno- 
mena. It involves very much that is uncertain and paradoxical, 
but I have developed it in detail, because it may serve as a 
guide for new investigations. For even if no relation between 
crystallization and the growth of organisms be admitted in 
principle, this view has the advantage of affording a distinct 
representation of the organic processes ; an indispensable re- 
quisite for the institution of new inquiries in a systematic © 
manner, or for testing by the discovery of new facts a mode 
of explanation which harmonizes with phenomena already 
known. 
