Inaugural dissertation on the nature of respiration, and the extent of its connection with the nervous system / [George Augustus Frederick Wilks].

  • Wilks, George Augustus Frederick.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Inaugural dissertation on the nature of respiration, and the extent of its connection with the nervous system / [George Augustus Frederick Wilks]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/60 page 12
    gument, he unhesitatingly jumps at the extraordinary con¬ clusion, which he thus expresses, “ Je ne doute point que u ce ne soit la le systeme nerveux chez les vegetaux.11 That plants, which possess only the power of self-preserva¬ tion and reproduction as the manifestations of their vitality, and are totally destitute of those higher functions by which the animal kingdom is pre-eminently distinguished, should be considered as possessing a nervous system, appears to me in the highest degree preposterous and absurd. Destined by nature to remain fixed to the soil from which their nu¬ triment is derived, organs of locomotion are in them, neither provided nor required ; hence one of the principal objects of a nervous system is entirely wanting, and the existence of nerves of locomotion may surely therefore be unequivocally denied, from the total absence of the ordinary phenomena which such a provision' is found to produce. The existence of sensation in the vegetable kingdom ap¬ pears still more problematical than that of locomotion, for the idea of sensation necessarily involves the existence of a sensorium, and it is inconceivable in what manner this func¬ tion can be assigned to vegetables, unless it be determined, in the liberal spirit of some philosophers, to bestow upon them the “ godlike attribute11 of mind ; it is to be feared, however, that such a provision would only prove a source of perpetual disquietude, against which, their stationary condition would afford them no protection. On this point, it is surely needless to dwell: sensation without voluntary motion would be a function without an object, and it is not in this manner, that nature usually exhibits her powers of design in the construction of her creatures. As for the very few isolated instances in the vegetable kingdom, of pheno¬ mena supposed to indicate sensation and voluntary motion, as for example, the folding of the leaves of the “ mimosa pudica,11 and the elastic spring of the anthers of the “ kal- mia latifolia,11 I must confess, that there is nothing in these and other phenomena commonly mentioned, which has ever
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3