2SO THE CELL-THEORY 



eagle-like to some point amidst the clouds, whence the absolute 

 relations of things could be securely viewed ; and at present, their 

 more useful, if more ignoble course, may rather be compared to that 

 of the flocks of sparrows in autumn, which one sees continually halting, 

 yet always advancing — flying from tree to tree, noisily jubilating in 

 each, as if that were assuredly the final resting-place and secure haven 

 of sparrows, and yet as certainly taking their departure after awhile, 

 in search of new acquisitions. We must build our theories, in these 

 days, as we do our houses : giving up all attempt at Cyclopean 

 architecture, let us bethink ourselves rather of the convenience of our 

 successors, who will assuredly alter, and perhaps pull them down, to 

 suit the needs of their own age ; and if we seek their gratitude, let us 

 strive not so much to knit our materials firmly together (which will 

 only give them more trouble and yield us less thanks), as to see that 

 they are separately sound and convertible. This much digression has 

 seemed necessary, by way of securing ourselves from any suspicion of 

 a desire to under-estimate the historical value of Schleiden and 

 Schwann's researches, in the course of an attempt to show that 

 they are based upon errors in anatomy, and lead to errors in 

 physiology. 



Again, with regard to that value, we have a few words to say in a 

 merely historical point of view. The sketch we have given of the 

 progress of general anatomy, we believe, omits mention of no ordinarily 

 recognized epoch, nor fails to indicate the acknowledged order of the 

 successive introduction of those great leading ideas with which we are 

 at present concerned.^ In their own belief, and in that of their con- 

 temporaries, Schleiden and Schwann have not only worked out 

 developmental histology, but originated it ; and the latter, in his 

 reclamation against Valentin (loc. cit., pp. 260, 261), defends his claim 

 to be considered the originator of the idea that " a common principle 

 governs the development of the elementary parts of all organisms." 

 Now, we fully recognise the originality of these writers ; we believe 

 that they deserve all the credit which can attach to a noble plan 

 carried out with no small success ; and we further remember that the 

 majority always sympathizes with the cry, " Pereant qui ante nos, 

 nostra," &c. ; but, as we have said, truth often has more than one 

 Avatar, and whatever the forgetfulness of men, history should be just, 

 and not allow those who had the misfortune to be before their time, 

 to pass for that reason into oblivion. 



Such was the position into which his great genius forced Caspar 



^ Compare Kolliker's Handbuch, Introduction ; or Sprengel'.s Geschichte der Arzney- 

 kiinde. 



