WHAT ARE THEY FOR? • 147 



lectures, readings, or conversations, he, not being able at once to com- 

 prehend and appreciate the Almighty's agencies, as displayed in these 

 formations, crudely asks, "What are they for?" 



Eliza Cook has written one of her poems to show that nothing is 

 formed in vain, though we may not individually perceive its uses, and 

 this is a great fact. 



Kingsley remarks in "Two Years Ago," "The little zoophyte lives by 

 the same laws as you and I. He, and the sea-weeds, and so forth, teach 

 us doctors certain little rules concerning life and death, which you will 

 have a chance soon of seeing at work, on the most grand, and poetical, 

 and indeed altogether tragic scale. When the cholera comes here, as it 

 will at its present pace before the end of the summer, then I shall have 

 the zoophytes rising up in judgment against me, if I have not profited 

 by a leaf out of their book." 



A<min, what extensive grounds the naturalist has for study among the 

 electrical forces of nature, both the vegetable and animal kingdoms affording, 

 under . peculiar conditions, abundant displays of electricity. Experiments 

 made by Pouillet showed, that in the process of germination, no electricity 

 was evolved by seeds, but when sprouting commenced, "a gold-leaf elec- 

 trometer had its leaves separated at least half-an-inch." 



The heat evolved from an insect has been known to deflect a galvan- 

 ometer, and the entrance of heated persons into a room has operated in a 

 similar manner ; for it is a common truth, that the influences of light and 

 heat, concordant with a strong play of the body's functions, (with its 

 chemical changes also favourably operating,) conduce to give forth electrical 

 discharges. The warm heart of a kitten, after death, is capable of con- 

 tractile movements, on being touched with a needle, I believe. 



The electrical currents in animals are all dependant on the muscles and 

 the nerves, which have a cognate, electro- excitive power, with the muscles. 



The class of fishes that can accumulate electricity, and discharge it, 

 with an effect most similar to that given from a Leydon jar, has excited 

 much attention. JNor do I think the interest is altogether extinct; for 

 scientific men, in their labours, find much in Thermal and Voltaic elec- 

 tricity to unravel, that exact results and causes may be given as to the 

 origin of this power, possessed by the Gymnotus, Torpedo, and others. 



"The nerves must be regarded as the very essence of being of all 

 creatures," and doubtless as further research prosecutes its enquiry, new 

 facts of electrical wonders, the connection with many organized bodies will 

 be made known, and as the truths are enunciated to the superficial 

 observer, he may repeat the question, "What are they for?" 



The answer is, to show the unity of the Great Creator's works, that 

 between the lowliest zoophyte and the highest human organization there 



