THE CELL DOCTRINE. 75 



observations by Eckbart* Billrotb,t and Fried- 

 reicb.J 



The other fibrous element of areolar or connective 

 tissue, which forms the mass of its bulk, the pure 

 vjhite fibrous or waving, does not, according to Vir- 

 chow, have its origin in cells, but is a modification 

 of a previously homogeneous intercellular substance, 

 deposited between the cells; a view which in its glar- 

 ing departure from the primary proposition that the 

 cell is the starting-point, and that every tissue is 

 composed of cells or some modification of cell forms, 

 presents one of the few inconsistencies traceable in 

 the theory of Virchow. 



We think it proper, in a historical memoir of this 

 kind, to refer to some severe critical remarks vt'hich 

 appeared in the Edinburgh Medical Journal, of Feb- 

 ruary and April, 1869, in which Prof. Virchow is ac- 

 cused of appropriating the observations of Prof. 

 Groodsir as his own. That there are points in com- 

 mon, it will be recollected, and, also, that these are 

 1st, the invariable origin of cells from previously ex- 

 isting cells, and 2d, the division of the tissues into 

 cell territories. Now on the one hand we deem that 

 the dedication of Virchow's volume to Prof. Goodsir 

 is as handsome an accredit as could possibly be given 

 for whatever of common there may be in the writings 

 of the two authors, and on the other hand we have 

 seen that Martin Barry is acknowledged even by 



* Eckhart, Beitrage Anat. und Physiol., 1855. 

 f Billroth, Mailer's Archiv, 1858. 

 J Friedreich, loc. citat., p. 538. 



