THE FORMATION OF PROTEIDS IN PLANT-CELLS. 67 



but is the product of the transformation 1 ) of the directly formed 

 active unstable albumen is plainly logical and needs no further 

 explanation to any one acquainted with the progress of chem- 

 istry ; it is no " doctrinary assumption," as a botanist in Ger- 

 many has supposed it to be. 



The development and perfection of the sciences causes a 

 growing division of labor but the increased study of details often 

 impedes an insight into the connection of the phenomena of relat- 

 ed branches of science. A catalogue of isolated facts, however, 

 accumulated with infinite pains by scientific workers, will have a 

 still fuller significance by the establishment of a unifying con- 

 ception. The theory here developed combines and compares 

 observations on the lowes-t as well as the highest forms of vegeta- 

 tion, gives a very plausible account of the mode of protein forma- 

 tion, leads at the same time to a very natural explanation of the 

 chemical difference between living and dead protoplasm, and 

 points to conclusions as to the nature of poisonous actions, which 

 have been verified by experiments. 2 ' 



Still, new theories are making their way very slowly. The 

 history of opinion, says R. Beeton, has three stages. The first 

 stage is that in which men say it is not true ; the second is that 

 in which they say, there may be something in it, and the third 

 stage is that in which they say they have been of that opinion 

 all along ! The theory of the active albumen has now reached 

 the second stage. 



1) Compare pag. 3i,Chapt. IV. 



2) Compare Chapt. Ill of this essay. 



