CHAPTER III. 



THE PROTOPLASMIC THEORY BEFORE 1860. 



EVEN before the supremacy of the cell was shaken, 

 biologists began to notice that the cell theory most in 

 vogue through Yirchow's compendium was not the 

 theory of Schwann in its complete form, and the 

 opinion was expressed by Max Schultze* that "in. 

 many points we must go back to the purer form of 

 the doctrine."^ Now what is the pure form ? At 

 p. 165 of Schwann's work we read " that in the fun- 

 damental phenomena attending the exertion of pro- 

 ductive power in organic nature a structureless sub- 

 stance is present in the first instance, either around or 

 in the interior of cells already existing ; and cells are 

 formed in it in accordance with certain laws, which 

 cells become developed in various ways into the ele- 

 mentary parts of organisms." 



In respect to this cytoblastema, or amorphous 



* "Protoplasma der Rhizopoden," p. 63. 



f Perhaps we should go further back to C. F. Wolff, who traced 

 back the point of departure of all development, both animal and 

 vegetable, to a "clear, viscous, solidescible nutritive fluid possessed 

 of no organization." 



