Ohfervat'ions on the Ipomaa Hijpida, 19 



the organs of hearing, fight, tafte, and fme!!. There are 

 whole families which have not the organ of voice, that pow- 

 erful mean for difcovcring fenfation ; and the fenfe^ ot touch 

 itfelf is fomeiimes fo obfcure by the abfence of thofe fenfible 

 movements and violent agitations manifefted by other ani- 

 nals in confequence of any iiroke, that it cannot be known 

 whether it is produced by fenfation, or by any other principle 

 imknown, and merely mechanical. Even the organs of di- 

 geftion, which in other animals are internal, can be fupplied 

 in the family of the polypes by the external organs, and even 

 by the Ikin itfelf. It is well known that thefe animals form 

 a kind of elongated bag, if they are turned, like the finger of 

 a glove ; the iromach becomes Ikin, and performs the func- 

 tions of it, while the fkin becomes ftomach, and digeilioa 

 continues. 



XI. ,It was formerly thought that, to afcertain whether an 

 organized being bp.lon'ged to the animal or vegetable king- 

 dom, it was futfici en t to divide it into feveral parts; but at 

 prefent we are acquainted with a multitude of aiiimals which 

 may be divided without delhoylng them, and which even 

 multiply, like fome plants, in proportion as they are divided. 



XII. The little analogy, therefore, which exifts between 

 our organs and thofe of plants, and even the abfolute priva- 

 tion ot certain- oreans, will not pernjit us to obtain certain 

 and evident proofs of the life and fenfation of vegetables. For, 

 if we fuppofe that all plants are endowed with fenfation, and 

 that it is even much more exquifite than our own, how can 

 we afcertain whether their mode of living and feeling be dit- 

 ferent from ours, if their organs have no relation to our or- 

 gans, and if they arc entirely deprived of thofe which could 

 ad upon ours ? But though we cannot prove direftly, and in 

 an evident manner, that plants feel, it by no means thenct 

 follows that plants are incapable of feeling as well as animals, 

 and even in a much more exquifite manner. We cannot 

 without temerity, and without expofing ourfelves to the danger 

 of falling into error, refule to nature a power which (he ex- 

 ercifes, perhaps, over all organized beings. 



XIII. Motion, perhaps,1s the moll certain charafter by 

 which animals are diliinguiihed, and that which rarely aban- 

 dons them : without it we fliould be obliged to confider as 

 inanimate an infinite number of beings in whom life is ma- 

 nifelted in the moft evident manner by the rapid movements 

 of their dilfcrent parts ; movements which can in no manner 

 be afcribed to mere mechanifm, but which are neceflarily 

 produced by fenfation ; and yet thefe movements fometinies 

 oecoiae fo flow, and fo obfcure, tluil ihcy are capable of cx- 



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