The Hunterian oration : Royal College of Surgeons of England, February 14th, 1895 / by J.W. Hulke.
- Hulke, J. W. (John Whitaker), 1830-1895.
- Date:
- 1895
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The Hunterian oration : Royal College of Surgeons of England, February 14th, 1895 / by J.W. Hulke. Source: Wellcome Collection.
18/46 page 14
![the green leaves wrapt about it. Attention once aroused, this phenomenon was quickly found to be common to many other plants. That it should have so long escaped recognition, and then owe its dis- covery to an accident, is but one of many instances that could be adduced to illustrate how easily do circumstances for which we are not looking pass unnoticed, even though daily occurring beneath our very eyes. The Mimosa ])udica was made by John Hunter the subject of a study into which he threw himself with characteristic energy. He writes:— In order to have the greatest part of the day before me I began my experiments at eight in the morning, while the leaves were in full expansion, and I continued them till four in the afternoon, as longer would not have been just, for they begin to collapse of themselves between five and six o'clock. With his peculiar aptitude for planning an experiment, he contrived a small screen upon which he could trace and measure the arc through which a selected leaflet moved in response to a certain stimulus. In this way he found that the leaflets are less affected as they become accustomed to the stimulus; that they require a stronger and quicker stimulus to produce motion after being some time accustomed to it ; and that they erect themselves less after a repetition of such actions Here the analogy of the corresponding occurrences in connection with excitation of animal tissues is very obvious. Searching for the mechanism](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21778760_0018.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
