202 THEORY OF THE CELLS.
But greatly as these plastic phenomena differ in cells and
in crystals, the metabolic are yet more different, or rather they are quite peculiar to cells. For a crystal to grow, it must be
already present as such in the solution, and some extraneous
cause must interpose to diminish its solubility. Cells, on the
contrary, are capable of producing a chemical change in the
surrounding fluid, of generating matters which had not previously existed in it as such, but of which only the elements
were present in another combination. They therefore require
no extraneous influence to effect a change of solubility; for if they can produce chemical changes in the surrounding fluid,
they may also produce such substances as could not be held in
solution under the existing circumstances, and therefore need
no external cause of growth. If a crystal be laid in a pretty
strong solution, of a substance similar even to itself, nothing
ensues without our interference, or the crystal dissolves completely: the fluid must be evaporated for the crystal to increase. If a cell be laid in a solution of a substance, even different from itself, it grows and converts this substance
without our aid. And this it is from which the process going
on in the cells (so long as we do not separate it into its severalacts) obtains that magical character, to which attaches the idea of Life.
From this we perceive how very different are the phenomena in the formation of cells and of crystals. Meanwhile, however, the points of resemblance between them should not be overlooked. They agree in this important point, that solid bodies of a certain regular shape are formed in obedience to definite laws at the expense of a substance contained in solution in a fluid; and the crystal, like the cell, is so far an active and positive agent as to cause the substances which are precipitated to be deposited on itself, and nowhere else. We must, therefore, _attribute to it as well as to the cell a power to attract the substance held in solution in the surrounding fluid. It does not indeed follow that these two attractive powers, the power of crystallization—to give it a brief title—and the plastic power of the cells are essentially the same. This could only be admitted, if it were proved that both powers acted according to the same laws. But this is seen at the first glance to be by no means the case: the phenomena in the formation of cells
