THE CELL DOCTRINE. 27 



cell as made up of granules or atoms, spirally ar- 

 ranged about an ideal axis, comparing the cell with 

 the crystal rather than the ultimate element or atom 

 of which the crystal is made up, and speaks of or- 

 ganization as crystallization in vesicles (crystalliza- 

 tion vesiculaire). 



Similar was the view of Dutrochet,* who divided 

 the component parts of the body into solids sand fluid. 

 The solids were formed by the aggregation of cells of 

 a certain degree of firmness; the liquids, as the blood, 

 are also made up of cells/ which, however, float freely 

 among each other, and there are also tissues in which 

 the cells are so feebly united, that one can scarcely 

 tell in what class to place them. The contents of the 

 cell may be more or less solid, but the highest degree 

 of vitality is only compatible with liquid cell contents. 

 Muscular fibres, and the remaining animal fibres, are cells 

 much elongated. And he considers the same gmeral plan 

 to prevail in the animal and vegetable. The approach of 

 both of these observers to the truth is striking. 

 Both, however, either failed to detect the nucleus or 

 to attach any importance to it. They failed also to 

 lay down a law of organic development. Hence their 

 views were soon forgotten. 



Since the discovery of the nucleus, by Dr. Robert 

 Brown, in the vegetable cell, it had been recognized 

 by many observers in various pathological, as well as 

 healthy animal cells, and in the germ cell or ovule 

 of birds, as early as in 1825, by Purkinje; while 



Dutrochet, op. citat. 



