Viii PREFACE 



It is not fair play to suggest that my work has, in any 

 way, in any degree, been anticipated by Burdon-Sanderson's 

 studies of a leaf of Venus 's fly-trap, or by the academic 

 labours of Professor Bose, because it is not true. Nor is it 

 understandable why if physiologists are capable and 

 experienced electricians they fail to tell us anything about 

 the human electrical system. 



The issue is a plain one : I am either right or I am wrong. 

 If I am right then a brighter prospect opens for humanity. 

 If I am wrong — and it would be a very extraordinary 

 thing to find so long a chain of coincidences — it is easy 

 enough to prove me to be so by giving another and more 

 intelligible explanation of vital phenomena. In the mean- 

 time there is no explanation, other than that for which I 

 am responsible ; although Dr. Geo. W. Crile and, I have 

 no doubt, other able men are close upon the heels of the 

 truth. 



In the present work I have attempted, and I think it 

 is the first time it has been attempted, to give a consecu- 

 tive account of the electro-physiological processes con- 

 cerned in evolution, from the formation of the pollen grain 

 to the completion of the structure of the young plant. 

 In regard to the other Studies in Electro-Physiology which 

 help to swell the volume I would point out that the thesis 

 upon the Auditory Apparatus opens up a, I submit, more 

 detailed and reasonable theory of the operation of what 

 has been called " the Mechanism of Hearing " than others 

 which, in more senses than one, have gone before it. 



A. E. BAINES. 



