46 THE CELL DOCTRINE. 



(nuclei), their power "to draw from the capillary 

 vessels, or from other sources, the materials of nutri- 

 tion, and to distribute them by development to each 

 organ or texture after its kind;" second, the origin of 

 such centres or nuclei from previously existing nu- 

 clei. In this short paper of three pages, are con- 

 tained, as stated, the essentials of the cell doctrine 

 of Virchow, and as it has recently assumed addi- 

 tional interest on controversial* grounds, it may be 

 well to introduce as much as bears directly upon the 

 subject. "The centre of nutrition with which we 

 are most familiar, is that from which the whole or- 

 ganism derives its origin the germinal spot of the 

 ovum. From this, all the other centres are derived, 

 either mediately or immediately; and in directions, 

 numbers, and arrangements, which induce the con- 

 figuration and structure of the being. As the entire 

 organism is formed at first, not by simultaneous 

 formation of its parts, but by the successive devel- 

 opment of these from one centre, so the various parts 

 arise each from its own centre, this being the orig- 

 inal source of all the centres with which the part is 

 ultimately supplied. 



"From this it follows, not only that the entire 

 organism, as has been stated by the authors of the 

 cellular theory, consists of simple or developed cells, 

 each having a peculiar independent vitality, but 

 that there is in addition, a division of the whole into 

 departments, each containing a certain number of 

 developed cells, all of which hold certain relations, 



* Edinburgh Monthly Medical Journal, Feb. and April, 1869, 

 pp. 766 and 959. 



