THE CELL DOCTRINE. 55 



in connection with Wolff, of whose theory he has 

 been the able exponent. In the same paper* he has 

 given us his own views — " conceived in the spirit, 

 and not unfrequently borrowing the phraseology, 

 of Wolff and Von Baer." We present them, as 

 far as may be consistent with brevity, in his own 

 words : 



" Vitality, the faculty, that is, of exhibiting defi- 

 nite cycles of change in form and composition, is a 

 property inherent in certain kinds of matter. There 

 is a condition of all kinds of living matter in which 

 it is an amorphous germ — that is, in which its exter- 

 nal form depends merely on ordinary physical laws, 

 and in which it possesses no internal structure. Now, 

 according to the nature of certain previous condi- 

 tions, the character of the changes undergone, or the 

 different states exhibited — or, in other words, the 

 successive differentiations of the amorphous mass 

 will be different. 



" The morphological differentiation may be of two 



the views of Prof. Huxley here presented are brought forward as 

 those now entertained by him, and with which the public have 

 been made so generally familiar through his lecture on "Proto- 

 plasm," or the " Physical Basis of Life," delivered at Edinburgh, 

 November 18th, 1868, and originally published in the " Fort- 

 nightly Review" for February, 1869; but also largely republished 

 in numerous English and American periodicals, as well as in a 

 separate pamphlet, to be had of the publishers of the Yale College 

 Courant, New Haven, Conn. To one closely observing, however, 

 we think that these latter views will appear to be foreshadowed 

 in the theory hero given, and which we think of sufficient his- 

 torical importance to justify its presentation here. 



* Huxley, Eeview of the Cell Theory. Br. and For. Med. 

 Chir. Eev., October, 1853, p. 305. 



