DOGMA TIC ME THODS OF TEA CHING. 7 5 



and what consequences must be inferred from the cell- 

 theory, and attempts have not been wanting to upset 

 it altogether and to treat it as worthless. The anato- 

 mist Henle, of Gottingen, in particular, has repeatedly 

 made such an attempt, that " gifted " anatomist who, in 

 the preface to his bulky text-book of human anatomy, 

 declared that scientific ideas are mere worthless paper 

 money, and that the noble metal of facts, on the con- 

 trary, is the only genuine article. Not long since a 

 bulky volume in quarto appeared, by one Herr Nathu- 

 sius-Konigsborn, in which the cell is explained to be 

 a subordinate plastic element, and the cell-theory is 

 eliminated as superfluous ; and this monstrous volume, 

 full of the most amusing nonsense, is dedicated to 

 Herr Henle. Virchow formerly was one of the vic- 

 torious opponents of the Gottingen physician, and wrote 

 brilliant articles against the "rational pathology" of 

 " irrational Herr Henle ; " now apparently he agrees 

 with him that the paper money of ideas is worthless 

 as compared with the noble metal of facts. Of course 

 the cell-theory then loses all its value, and cannot be 

 a subject of instruction ; for the cell itself is not a 

 certain and undoubted fact, but only an abstraction, a 

 philosophical idea. 



Nothing more clearly shows what a complete change 

 Virchow has undergone in his most important principles, 

 and what an utter metapsychosis in this special pro- 



