regulating Vital and Physical Phenomena. 345 



most fruits. Some of the most interesting proofs of the occur- 

 rence of electric actions in plants are derived from the experi- 

 ments of M. Becquerel and Mr Crosse, on the effect of currents 

 of voltaic electricity of very feeble intensity, in producing the 

 crystallization of many substances, which, from their insolubi- 

 lity, the chemist has been hitherto unable to procure in that 

 form, but which occur abundantly in vegetables, such as silex, 

 and the carbonate and oxalate of lime. Now, unless we sup- 

 pose that vital affinity or action possesses this remarkable pro- 

 perty in common with electricity, a supposition which appears 

 entirely gratuitous, we cannot hesitate to set down the deposit 

 of these salts in a crystalline state in the vegetable tissues, to 

 the electricity developed by other chemical actions going on 

 in the plant. 



It is hoped that the foregoing statements will have establish- 

 ed the probability (which is all that the present state of our 

 knowledge on these subjects will allow us to assert) that the 

 forces immediately concerned in the production of the changes 

 of decomposition and recomposition in the living body, are the 

 same as are in constant operation in the world around ; and that 

 it is at any rate premature to assert that the operations of vital 

 chemistry are directed by distinct laws, and due to new forces. 

 Indeed, one at least of the writers who has employed the terra 

 rital affinity, would seem not to differ essentially from the opi- 

 nions here given, since he considers,* that this property modi- 

 Jies (not supersedes) the chemical relations of the substances 

 subjected to it. This modification we believe with Dr Prout 

 to be due to the mode in which other vital properties (the 

 ensemble of which seems to constitute the organic agent of Dr 

 Prout) bring together the elements ; and if this be true, there 

 can be no definite conception attached to the term vital affinity 

 as distinct from chemical affinity. 



We may also express our concurrence with the opinion 

 of Dr Prout, regarding the use of the small quantities of 

 elements found in organized tissues which are usually consi- 

 dered as accidental ; namely, that, by their electrical influence, 

 (which may be most powerful, although they are present in 



• Alison's Phjsiology, p. 58. 



