ame occasion specially to celebrate his very great services
to the cell theory. How astonished then was I when in his reply this
very theory was violently attacked and satirised as "mere trifling
with words." It never could have occurred to me that Virchow had long
since become unfaithful to his most important biological principles,
and had deserted his own mechanical "theory of cells;" it never had
occurred to me that Virchow could be in great measure wanting in that
zoological knowledge which is requisite for a practical comprehension
of the cell-soul theory. He has never thoroughly studied either the
one-celled Protozoa, the Infusoria and Lobosa, nor the Coelenterata,
the highly instructive Sponges, Hydroids, Medusae, or Siphonophora; and
thus he is wanting in those genetic principles of comparative zoology
on which our theory rests. It is in no other way conceivable that
Virchow should contemn the most important consequences of the cell
theory as "mere trifling with words."

Next to the one-celled infusoria no phenomenon throws such direct
light on our cellular psychology as the fact that the human ovum, like
the ova of all other animals, is a single, simple cell. In accordance
with our monistic conception of the cell-soul, we must conclude that
the fertilised ovum-cell already virtually possesses those psychical
properties which, by the special combination of the peculiarities
inherited from both parents, characterise the individual soul of the
new person; in the course of the development of the germ, the
cell-soul of the fertilised ovum naturally is developed simultaneously
with its material substratum, and subsequently, after birth, it
appears in full activity.

According to Virchow's dualistic conception of the psyche, we must, on
the contrary, assume that this immaterial essence at some period of
its embryonic development (apparently when the spine separates itself
from the external germ-layer) informs the soulless germ. Of course,
the bare miracle is thus complete, and the natural and unbroken
continuity of development is superfluous.

CHAPTER V.

THE GENETIC AND DOGMATIC METHODS OF TEACHING.

The very justifiable surprise which Virchow's Munich address has
excited in many circles is due only in part to his opposition to the
theory of descent; for the rest, and in much greater part, it is due
to the astounding arguments which he has connected with it,
particularly as to freedom for instruction. T