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 fornix 

 even though the laws by which the cells arrange themscb. 

 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. 



