FURTHER REMARKS ON THE CELL-THEORY. 219 



nodes : " Does he accept the logical consequences of this^ and 

 say of the epithelial cells of the salamander or of unstriped 

 muscle fibres, that they are protoplasmic reticula with nuclei at 

 their nodes ? " 



Now, with all due respect to Mr, Bourne's logical faculties, 

 may I ask him where logic comes in here? If I describe 

 London as a network of streets, with public-houses at many of 

 the street corners, am I obliged by logic to give the same 

 description of the Gog-Magog Hills ? 



However, on the next page Mr. Bourne makes up for all the 

 hard strictures he has passed upon me ; for he says that, after 

 all, reflection may induce us to abandon the cell-republic or 

 colonial theory ; thus he admits a very important part of my 

 contention, for the assertion that organisms present a consti- 

 tution which may be described as cellular is not a theory at all, 

 it is a statement of fact (having agreed to the use of the word 

 cellular). The theory comes in when we try and account for 

 the cellular constitution of organisms ; and it is this theoretical 

 part of the cell-theory which I condemn, and which Mr. Bourne 

 after a great effort agrees with me in condemning. At the 

 same time it is possible that we might still disagree as to the 

 meaning of the word cellular. 



May I call attention to Mr. Bourne's remarkable faith in 

 the rapidity of evolutionary changes? He says (page 169) 

 that Schwann's assertion that '•' the elementary parts of all 

 tissues are formed of cells, &c.," is even more true to-day 

 than when it was written. Also I should like to know how he 

 reconciles the implication at the top of page 170, that 

 " specialisation is not possible in continuous tracts of proto- 

 plasm," with the statement a few lines further on, that " in the 

 Protozoa there is differentiation within the limits of a single 

 corpuscle." 



The criticism on page 173 as to my use of the word empty 

 is not quite fair. On reference to the context it will be seen 

 that the word empty clearly means " empty of structural 

 elements." 



