32 
Address of the President. 
defined membranous partitions, that I can scarcely hesitate in 
attributing to it a similar origin. 
The general doctrine, then, which seems to me best to 
express the facts I have stated, is that those essential endow- 
ments which we have been accustomed to attribute only to 
the typical cell, may exist in that comparatively-homogeneous 
substance which is commonly termed " protoplasm " in the 
vegetable kingdom, and " sarcode " in the animal ; that iso- 
lated particles of this substance may comport themselves after 
the manner of true cells, although no distinction between 
cell-wall and cell-contents may have made itself apparent ; 
and that various organs and tissues among the higher plants 
and animals have their origin in larger extensions of the same 
substance, in which the process of cellulation may either pro- 
ceed to the complete evolution of an aggregate of perfect cells, 
or may be stopped at any point, so as to leave but faint traces 
of the tendency in question. I have already adverted to the 
belief which I have from the first entertained, that in the 
animal body, the fibrillation of the blastema may take place 
quite independently of cellulation ; and I am much disposed 
to think that the formation of other tissues may take place 
by a like direct process of conversion. But I wish to take 
this opportunity of protesting against the assertion, that 
where no perfected cells can be demonstrated, there is not a 
tendency to a cellular organization, however incomplete may 
be its result. It would be just as unphilosophical, in my 
opinion, to assert that the white fibrous tissue does not mani- 
fest the tendency of the blastema to fibrillate, because it 
seldom exhibits isolated sharply-defined fibres like those of 
the yellow or elastic tissue. 
Some apology might, perhaps, seem due for thus occupy- 
ing your time in an abstract physiological disquisition ; but 
next to correct observation, is the right interpretation of what 
we see ; and, in fact, it is often extremely difficult (as is 
obvious in the history of this very inquiry) to distinguish 
between the impressions which the objects themselves make 
upon our minds, and the ideas which we connect with those 
impressions. And I am desirous that those whom I have 
now the pleasure of addressing, should be put in the way of 
examining for themselves into the merits (1) of the cell- 
doctrine as commonly held, (2) of the opposite view put 
forward by Mr. Huxley, and (3) of the intermediate doctrine 
which I have this evening endeavoured to expound. 
