Instinct and reason: deduced from electro-biology / By Alfred Smee.

  • Alfred Smee
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Instinct and reason: deduced from electro-biology / By Alfred Smee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    41/376 page 5
    if we could either take away all the solid or fluid portion, the daisy would no longer exist as a plant, but would be entirely destroyed. In this respect we have a condition in the nature of a body with life, which serves to distinguish it from the lifeless or inorganic body; for, although an inorganic body may be either in the solid, liquid, or gaseous state, yet a lifeless body is never in the two states at one time. In contradistinction, an organic body can only exist by possessing both a solid portion, or structure, and a fluid, which is the sap. 10. On examining the daisy more attentively, we find that some change is constantly occurring, and this change serves to a definite end. The sap continually rises from the roots to the stalk, and thence to the leaves. In the leaves the quality of the sap is altered. New matter is drawn from the carbonic acid in the air, and a flower sprouts out, which is, in its turn, followed by seed. These seeds, in process of time, become new plants, and the original plant perishes. 11. These changes do not depend alone upon forces gene¬ rated within its own structure, for we find it to be essen¬ tial that certain external forces should act upon the whole plant, to enable these alterations in the arrangement of the particles to ensue. If I keep my daisy in too hot or too cold a temperature, I should certainly destroy it; and if I kept it in darkness, I should kill it. When, however, the temperature is properly regulated, and the sun's rays act upon it, this plant grows, and exhibits its lovely flower. 12. We thus find that our daisy is an elaborate piece of mechanism, made up of structure and sap; and that this mechan¬ ism requires the assistance of heat and light to maintain its action. If I were to destroy the mechanism of the plant, by stamping upon
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3