INCOMPLETENESS OF THE CELL THEORY. 23 



to the smallest indivisible molecule of hydric oxide 

 in whatever physical state. Therefore we are again 

 thrown back upon the notion of a concrete life added 

 to a certain compound organized structure, a notion 

 not more conceivable or more tenable for simple cells 

 than for the whole individual. Hence if vitality is to 

 be a property of matter at all, it must be of a physically 

 homogeneous substance, every molecule of which must 

 possess that attribute. Moreover, in all modifications 

 of the cell theory, even those which allow for the 

 occasional absence of the cell wall, that part when 

 present is believed to take an active part in the strictly 

 vital process of transformation into tissue. Now the 

 cell wall is in ail cases solid and possessing a certain 

 rigidity, and in different cells it passes by insensible 

 shades through an infinite variety of degrees of hard- 

 ness, and of states, many of which are known to be 

 incompatible with life. Likewise it is continuous 

 with, and shades off into, the intercellular substances 

 which offer an infinite variety of composition, many 

 of them being non-nitrogenous a composition which 

 we know is incompatible with life; further, the cell 

 wall, or what corresponds to it functionally, passes 

 in other cases by insensible degrees into an infinite 

 variety of true fluid secretions which are soluble and 

 diffusible which no living thing is. 



For these reasons, and that given at p. 7, we are 

 driven to the conclusion that the attribute of vitality 

 cannot reside in anything of the nature of a cell wall, 

 and therefore of a cell taken as a whole. 



