Page:Microscopicial researchers - Theodor Schwann - English Translation - 1947.pdf/234

208 THEORY OF THE CELLS. vesicle, when it is developed at all, must needs be developed relatively with more rapidity than the first; for as the solution is in the most concentrated state at the beginning, the necessity for the formation of a second layer then occurs sooner; but when it is formed, the concentration of the fluid is diminished, and this necessity occurs either later or not at all. It is possible, however, that even a third, or fourth, and more, may be formed ; but the outermost layer must always be relatively the most vigorously developed; for when the concentration of the solution is only so strong, that all that must be deposited in a certain time, can be deposited in the outermost layer, it is all applied to the increase of this layer.

Such, then, would be the phenomena under which substances capable of imbibition would probably crystallize, if they did so at all. I say probably, for our incomplete knowledge of crystallization and the faculty of imbibition, does not as yet admit of our saying anything positively a priori. It is, however, obvious that these are the principal phenomena attending the formation of cells. They consist always of substance capable of imbibition ; the first part formed is a small corpuscle, not angular (nucleolus), around this a lamina is deposited (nucleus), which advances rapidly in its growth, until a second lamina (cell) is formed around it. This second now grows more quickly and expands into a vesicle, as indeed often happens with the first layer. In some rarer instances only one layer is formed ; in others, again, there are three. The only other difference in the formation of cells is, that the separate layers do not con- sist of the same chemical substance, while a common crystal is always composed of one material. In instituting a comparison, therefore, between the formation of cells and crystallization, the above-mentioned differences in form, structure, and mode of growth fall altogether to the ground. If crystals were formed from the same substance as cells, they would pro- bably, in these respects, be subject to the same conditions as the cells. Meanwhile the metabolic phenomena, which are entirely absent in crystals, still indicate essential distinctions.

Should this important difference between the mode of formation of cells and crystals lead us to deny all intimate connexion of the two processes, the comparison of the two may serve at least to give a clear representation of the cell-life.