62 MAGNETISM, THE LIFE OF THE WORLD—DEWAR.. 
pally to the poles, and, as far as the material will allow them, 
they are there formed into roots and branches. Moreover, as 
each braach and root fibre follows an individual course and _re- 
pels its neighbours, so do the roots and branches of the filings. 
Again, if two leaves on the same tree are forced to meet and 
touch one another, in a few day: chey begin to fade and wither, 
thus seeming to repel and kill one another; so, in a magnet, if 
we foree the filings on similar poles to meet, they also drop off, 
and, as.it were, fade. 
A seed, again, is as much a magnet with two poles as the mag- 
netised iron bar; and as the bar does not seem to be a magnet 
until the filings are scattered over it, so, neither does the seed 
until it is placed in a position to show its poles, viz., in the earth, 
where, with heat and'moisture, its magnetic character is appa- 
rent, for a root and a leaf is at once thrown out, thus showing 
its indestructible polarity. 
Besides being governed by its own inherent magnetism, a tree 
is also influenced by the magnetism of the earth, ia tree was 
left to its own magnetism it might grow ina slanting direction, 
and, especially on a hill side, a forest might become en- 
tangled in inextricable confusion. We find, however, a wonderful 
regularity in the growth of trees, and even on the steepest hills 
they never vary from the exact vertical. This.is caused by the 
magnetic force of the earth, which is continually in action, and 
must necessarily be vertical. 
Summing all the evidence together, the similarity between the . 
action of a magnet and plant life is such that we see not how it 
can possibly be overlooked or set aside. Enough it is for us that 
finding plant life a mystery, we see no mystery in it when read 
by the light of magnetism, and our only desire is that botanists 
may test it for their own satisfaction. 
ANIMAL LIFE. 
To prove the connection between animal life and magnetism 
may seem more difficult than in the previous divisions of the 
subject, but it is not so in reality. It is well known that men 
and animals are possessed of magnetism. The teaching of the 
present day tends to separate material, from animal magnetism, 
ee 
