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 1 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 he taken in its widest sense, as 

 implying the preparation of material by one elementary part, which another requires 

 for its own nutrition. 



