232 CONTRIBUTIONS TO
so far as it has become an integral part of a plant. It is, however, easy to perceive that the vital process of the individual cells must form the very first, absolutely indispensable fundamental basis, both as regards vegetable physiology and comparative physiology in general; and, therefore, in the very first instance, this question especially presents itself: how does this peculiar little organism, the cell, originate?
The great importance of the subject is the only excuse I can adduce for venturing at the present moment to publish the following remarks, feeling as I do only too well convinced that more extended researches can alone impart to them their proper scientific value. Perhaps, however, I may succeed by these remarks in drawing attention to this very important subject.
Since no real advance in science results from the attempt to explain natural phenomena hypothetically, and least of all, where all the conditions for the erection of a tenable hypothesis, namely, guiding facts, are wanting, I may omit all historical introduction; for, so far as I am acquainted, no direct observations exist at present upon the development of the cells of plants. Sprengel’s pretended primitive cells have long since been shown to be solid granules of amylum. To enter upon Raspail’s work appears to me incompatible with the dignity of science. Whoever feels any desire to do so, may refer to the work itself.
The only work connected with this subject, the highly dis- tinguished one by Mirbel, I shall have occasion to refer to subsequently, since even he does not make any allusion to the process of cell-formation. It is to be regretted that Meyen, who perhaps has studied vegetable anatomy more comprehensively than any one up to the present time, should have confined himself almost exclusively to the investigation of developed forms, and not yet have brought the formative process itself in any degree within the sphere of his enquiries. I still have many doubts, the solution of which I had hoped to have found in his Physiology, but hoped in vain.
It was Robert Brown who, with his comprehensive natural genius, first realized the importance of a phenomenon, which, although observed previously by others, had yet remained totally neglected. He found, in the first instance, in a great
