THE CELL DOCTRINE. 53 



ing paragraph of the paper whence we have derived 

 our information : 



" We have therefore maintained the broad doctrine 

 established by Wolff, that the vital phenomena are 

 not necessarily preceded by organization, nor are in 

 any way the result or effect of formed parts, but that 

 the faculty of manifesting them resides in the matter 

 of which living bodies are composed, as such or, 

 to use the language of the day, that the vital forces 

 are molecular forces."* 



Huxley moreover says that the three botanical 

 data upon which Schwann's theory was based, viz. : 



1. The anatomical independence of the vegetable 

 cell as a separate entity, 



2. His conception of the structure of the vegeta- 

 ble cell, and 



3. Its mode of development, were all erroneous. 

 Since first, he (Huxley) considers that the fact that 



by certain chemical or mechanical means, a plant 

 may be broken up into vesicles, corresponding w r ith 

 the cavities which previously existed in it, is of no 

 more value in proving the independence of these 

 vesicles, than the fact that a rhombohedron of spar, 

 broken up with the hammer, into minute rhornbo- 

 hedrons, is evidence that those minuter ones were 

 once independent, and formed the larger by their 

 coalescence. 



Second, Schwann's view of the anatomy of the 

 cell was incorrect, since he regarded the nucleus as 

 invariably present, whereas in certain vegetable cells 



* Huxley, loc. citat., p. 314. 

 6* 



