246 THE CELL-THEORY 



manifested by the diseased state. Nor is he at all wanting in what 

 has been considered, and justly, to be Bichat's great merit — an 

 essentially positive method of studying the tissues, inasmuch as he 

 particularly insists on the necessity of investigating the properties 

 of each tissue for itself, and of avoiding all hypothetical speculation ; 

 in fact, with the quaint plainness of the age, he does not hesitate 

 to insinuate that Averrhoes must have been " ebrius " when he 

 discoursed touching " spiritus qui insensibiles sunt." 



The vitality of each tissue, independently of every influence save 

 the general conditions of nutrition, is maintained by Fallopius, not as 

 a mere speculation, but on sound embryological grounds. How can the 

 liver, he asks, be the sole source and prime mover of all vital organi- 

 zation, as some have maintained, when, in the development of the 

 chick, we see other organs appear before it ? All that the liver and 

 the vessels can do is to modify the supplies, by affecting the " restitu- 

 tiones spirituum ac nutrimentis " (p. 98), the " partes similares " 

 themselves having a " regimen insitum," or, as in our day it would be 

 called, " vital force," of their own ; and he quotes, as expressing his 

 own views, the following remarkable passage from Actuarius : 



" Quod partes naturales agunt propria forma ac cum instrumento 

 quod dicitur spiritus animalis : nam hoc instrumento per propriam 

 formam attrahunt, concoquunt et expellunt, et hie spiritus est imme- 

 diatum instrumentum vis naturalis, et hie spiritus dicit Actuarius, 

 origijiem ducit una cum forma ipsius particulce, et ex eadem materia 

 eodemque tempore fitP 



Substitute here for the indefinite " particulae " definite vesicular 

 particles or cells, and for " spiritus animalis " the modern terms of 

 equivalent meaning or no meaning — vital-force or cell-force, and this 

 passage would serve very well as a concise expression of the " cell- 

 theory," such as may be found in many a hand-book of the day. So 

 far, and no further, have three centuries brought us ! 



In fact, it must be confessed, that these old writers were fully 

 possessed (more so, in truth, than many of their successors) with the 

 two fundamental notions of structural and physiological biology ; the 

 first, that living beings may be resolved anatomically into a compara- 

 tively small number of simple structural elements ; the second, that 

 these elementary parts possess vital properties, which depend for their 

 manifestation only upon the existence of certain general conditions 

 (supply of proper nutriment, &c.), and are independent of all direct 

 influence from other parts. 



But it would seem, that Truth must pass through more than one 

 Avatar, before she can attain a firm hold upon the mind even of men 



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