36 METAMOEPHOSES OF MAN 



in number. Several works which, have been since 

 published, even in Germany, present a decided re- 

 action. Possibly injustice may follow infatuation. 

 For our part, we should regret it exceedingly. We 

 could never see in this theory those characters of truth 

 and universal application which Schwann and some 

 of his followers attributed to it, but we have not, on 

 that account, denied the great benefits which it has 

 effected for science. Like all general speculations 

 which embrace a large number of isolated facts, it has 

 enlarged the field of science, given more scope for 

 research, and elucidated much of what had been before 

 obscure. More fortunate than many of its predeces- 

 sors, it is still to some extent correct, and even at the 

 present time we might almost give it our support. - 



We may say of Schwann's theory, that, with a few 

 exceptions, and save some questionable points which 

 we cannot treat of here, it applies fairly to all the 

 more lowly organized tissues of the body, and also — 

 where the strata are sufficiently distinct — to the 

 membranes which invest the various organs. There 

 is, so to speak, a sort of histological relationship 

 between the two great kingdoms. On the other 

 hand, the more highly organized tissues, those which 

 especially characterize the animal, are formed in the 

 midst or at the expense of the sarcode. Up to this 

 we have been speaking of the higher animals only, 

 for as we approach the inferior extremes of the three 

 invertebrate sub-types, we observe animals whose 

 tissues are very indistinct, and of a half-sarcode nature; 

 and in these instances the cell theory would be more 

 in error than ever. 



All organs spring from a blastema, which is pri- 



