18 THE CELL DOCTRINE. 



and an " organized concrete." To the former he as- 

 signs the most important position, asserting that it 

 is to the physiologist what the line is to the geome- 

 trician ; that a "fibre," in general, may be con- 

 sidered as resembling a line made up of points, 

 having a moderate breadth, or rather as a slender 

 cylinder.* 



The second elementary substance of the human 

 ' body according to Haller, the " organized concrete," 

 must not be lost sight of, as appears to have been 

 the case with many eminent authorities who have 

 attempted to give his views. This, he says, is a 

 mere glue, evasated and concreted, not within the 

 fibres, but in the spaces betwixt them, in illustration 

 of which it is stated, that cartilages seem, to be 

 scarcely anything else besides this glue concreted. 

 But these views of Haller were clearly not based upon 

 microscopic observation, though the microscope had 

 been for some time in use. For Haller himself tells 

 us that the fibre is invisible, and to be distinguished 

 only by the "mind's eye," — invisihilis est ea Jibra, 

 sold mentis acie distinguimus.\ No allusion, to the 

 cell beyond the imperfect description of the blood- 



* Haller, Elementa Physiologise, vol. i, lib. i, sec. i. Lausan., 

 Helvet.,1757. 



■j- A singular discrepancy exists between these words of Haller 

 and those found in both the Latin and English editions of the 

 " elegant compend " of Haller's works printed in Edinburgh, the 

 former in 1766, and the latter (an edition in the possession of the 

 writer), in 1779, under the inspection of William CuUen, M.D. 

 In the latter, we have the following : " The solid parts of animals 

 and vegetables have this fabric in common, that their elements, or 



