point was, that his full investigation of the subject showed how such phenomena must be studied, if we are to arrive at a strictly mechanical explanation of them.
If von Mohl had attempted to give a mechanical explanation of the processes in the tissue of twining organs he must necessarily have failed from ignorance of the agency of diffusion, which must certainly be taken into consideration. This agency was not discovered by Dutrochet till the year (1826) in which von Mohl undertook his investigation, and some time elapsed before it was sufficiently understood to be successfully applied to the explanation of phenomena in vegetation. Dutrochet did indeed attempt so to apply his theory in 1828, and showed that changes in the turgidity of tissue are produced by endosmose and exosmose, and consequently that a new mechanical method of explanation had been discovered for processes which had been usually referred to a supposed vital principle; but in his later and more detailed researches into geotropism, heliotropism, periodical movements and movements of irritability, which he collected together in his 'Memoires' of 1837, he fell into two different mistakes: he assumed conditions of size and stratification in cells which do not actually exist, for the purpose of explaining very various kinds of curvature by endosmose, and he was not satisfied with endosmose in the parenchyma; he postulated changes in the vascular bundles also, which were supposed to be produced by the influence of the oxygen in a way which he did not explain. Thus there were blots in his explanation of separate processes, and his mechanical theories remained unsatisfactory; but it is worthy of recognition and was most important for the development of phytodynamics, that he was thoroughly in earnest in his purpose of explaining every movement in plants by mechanical laws. Even the opponents of such explanations were obliged to go deeply into mechanical relations in order to refute him, and no one could any longer be imposed upon by the simple assertion that all depends on the vital force; so devoted
