ORGANOLOGY. 457 



conducted them have brought to their works groundless prejudices, and, 

 following the old beaten tract, have not even paused to inquire whether or 

 not it were right, and whether or not their prejudices were just ; and they 

 have even taken these latter as leading maxims to form the basis of all 

 their investigations. I have already discussed the fanciful analogy 

 between the physiology of animals and of plants. In consequence of the 

 use of this absurd analogy, almost all the works which have hitherto 

 appeared on vegetable physiology are perfectly worthless, for in no 

 instance have they adopted the only true fundamental position, namely, 

 the essential peculiarity of vegetable life ; nay, the larger number of 

 writers have not even given a comprehensive view of the facts already 

 known, as such would have destroyed their assumed principles. 



Each branch of natural science, if it would lay claim to such name, 

 must have its own peculiar independent principle of development, which 

 must be drawn from its own data, and only thence. It is not until con- 

 siderable advance has been made towards perfection that it is safe 

 to begin to inquire whether analogies exist between itself and some other 

 branch of natural science, and, if so, what they are. The manner in 

 which science is usually pursued is not following it out gradually through 

 u long course of original investigations, but by grasping hastily at all 

 statements and dogmas that are afloat respecting it, seeking to participate 

 in its treasures as an inheritance from strangers, rather than by examining 

 into its foundations and building up its structure : this is the reason that 

 we find even more dangerous prejudices to combat in science than in 

 practical life. From the very nature of theoretical science, which escapes 

 the continual tests and trials which are applied in practical matters, it 

 happens that mere tradition and well-pursued investigation, old ideas and 

 recent advance, falsity and truth, long remain side by side. Hence pre- 

 judice and misconception exist longer in science than in life. Thus it is 

 that the farther a science is removed from contact with the business of 

 life, and the farther it traces back its origin towards the middle ages, the 

 more likely it is to be treated on the senseless method of developing 

 the science through philological discussions. Thus it has been with 

 Botany: books have been written when plants should have been examined, 

 conjectures have been made when investigations should have been 

 pursued. Hence for about a century we have but revolved in a circle, 

 without making the least advance or discovering new facts ; and new 

 laws are given us which are only the result of the play of chances, 

 whilst correct fundamental maxims and correct methods of advance 

 would have guaranteed the solution of various problems, and secured the 

 progress of the science. 



My aim is to establish the necessity of embracing, as a fundamental 

 principle in the study of the whole, the existence of an essential life in 

 each separate cell. Hence arises the necessity of carrying on investiga- 

 tions in the first instance in the individual cells, or in portions of the 

 vegetable structures, in which we have to do with few cells in combina- 

 tion. On these we must make our first experiments, and from them draw 

 our first conclusions, which we may then proceed to apply to subsequent 

 investigations into the general structure of the plant, pursuing all our 

 inquiries with the aid of the microscope, and placing them under the 

 control of an accurate history of development. Upon such a plan alone 

 can we make a sure advance in the study of vegetable life. 



For want of such a plan little or nothing has hitherto been done. It is 

 hence a consequence that all foregoing physiological experiments, and their 



