THE CELL DOCTRINE. 25 



singer built up his fibres and vessels is interesting 

 and important, since there is in these views an ap- 

 proximation to the truth. "As the result of an 

 equal contest between contraction and expansion, 

 there arises the globule, of which all organisms, all 

 organic parts, are originally composed. By a stron- 

 ger exercise (Spannung, tension) of power, there 

 originates from the often more homogeneous globule, 

 the vesicle. "Where in an organism globules and a 

 formless mass are present, the globules arrange them- 

 selves according to chemical(?) laws and forni_^6res. 

 Where vesicles arrange themselves, there arise canals 

 and vessels." In the latter sentence one cannot fail 

 to note a close approximation to the truth, though 

 the facts upon which the theory was based are partly 

 false and partly misinterpreted. 



But the observations and writings of Milne Ed-'- 

 wards* may be looked upon as having given, more 

 than those of any other author, position and popular- 

 ity to the " globular theory." He examined all the 

 principal tissues, and announced that the fibres of the 

 then so-called cellular (fibrous) tissues, membranes 

 composed of these fibres, muscle and nerve, were 

 composed of globules of about the same size, from 

 B^TTr *° ^bW °^ ^^ inch, in diameter; whence he 

 concluded that these spherical corpuscles, by their 

 aggregation, constituted all organic textures, vege- 

 table or animal, and whatsoever their properties or 

 functions. There is little doubt but that many of 

 these so-called globules described by Edwards were' 



* Edwards, loo. oitat. 



