STUDY IX» Z2^ 



" from all vegetables may be extraded a certain 

 " quantity of an acid liquor, more or lefs of ef- 

 ** fential or fetid oil, of fait fixed, volatile, or, 

 '* concrete, of infipid phlegm, and of earth ; and, 

 ** in many cafes, almoft the fame principles, and 

 ** in the fame quantities, from plants whofe vir- 

 " tues are extremely different. This very tedious, 

 " and very painful purfuit, accordingly, has 

 " turned out a merely ufelefs attempt towatd a 

 *' difcovery of the effeéls of plants ; and has ferved 

 " only to undeceive us, refpefting the prejudices 

 " which might have been entertained in favour of 

 " fuch an analyfis." He adds, that the celebrated 

 Chemift Hombergy having fovvn the feeds of the 

 fame plants in two frames, filled with earth, im- 

 pregnated with a flrong lye, the one of which was 

 afterwards watered with common water, and the 

 other with water in which nitre had been diflblved, 

 thefe plants re-produced very nearly the fame 

 principles. Here, then, is our fyftematic Science 

 completely overturned ; for it can difcover the ef- 

 fential qualities of plants, neither by their compo- 

 fition nor their decompofition. 



Many other errors have been adopted refped- 

 ing the Laws of the expanfion and the fecunda- 

 tion of plants. The Ancients had diftingviifhed, 

 in many plants, males and females; and a fecunda- 

 tion, by means of emanations of the feminal pow- 



VOL. II, Q., der. 



