THEORY OF THE CELLS. 211
menon, and one which has already been frequently adduced as analogous to assimilation. If a crystal of nitre be placed in a solution of nitre and sulphate of soda, only the nitre crystallizes; when a crystal of sulphate of soda is put in, only the sulphate of soda crystallizes. Here, therefore, there occurs just the same selection of the substance to be attracted.
We observed another law attending the development of the plastic phenomena in the cells, viz. that a more concentrated solution is requisite for the first formation of a cell than for its growth when already formed, a law upon which the difference between organized and unorganized tissues is based. In ordinary crystallization the solution must be more than saturated for the process to begin. But when it is over, there remains a mother lye, according to Thénard, which is no longer saturated at the same temperature. This phenomenon accords precisely with the cells; it shows that a more concentrated solution is requisite for the commencement of crystallization than for the increase of a crystal already formed. The fact has indeed been disputed by Thomson; but if, in the undisputed experiment quoted above, the crystal of sulphate of soda attracts the dissolved sulphate of soda rather than the dissolved nitre, and vice versa, the crystal of nitre attracts the dissolved nitre more than the dissolved sulphate of soda, it follows that a crystal does attract a salt held in solution, because the experiment proves that there are degrees of this attraction. But if there be such an attraction exerted by a crystal, then the introduction of a crystal into a solution of a salt, affords an efficient cause for the deposition of this salt, which does not exist when no crystal is introduced. The solution must therefore be more concentrated in the latter case than in the former, though the difference be so slight as not to be demonstrable by experiment. It would not, how- ever, be superfluous to repeat the experiments. In the in- stance of crystals capable of imbibition, this difference may be considerably augmented, since the attraction of molecules may increase perhaps considerably by the penetrating of the solution between those already deposited.
We see then how all the plastic phenomena in the cells may be compared with phenomena which, in accordance with the ordinary laws of crystallization, would probably appear if
