Ohfcrvallons en the Ipotn^a Hifpida. 2^ 



duce themfelves, are not the rcfult of mere mechanifm, but 

 that the grand act of generation is executed by a principle of 

 lenHition which regulates and direfts it : it, however, appears 

 that this fenfation abandons plants as foon as the end of na- 

 ture is accompliilied. Thus we fee different kinds of ani- 

 mals die when they have enfured the reproduction of their 

 Ipecies. 



XXIII. It is then highly probable that plants as well as 

 animals enjoy a principle of life and fenfation, whatever be 

 the nature ot that principle, and notwithftanding the differ- 

 ence it exhibits in thefe two families of organized beings; a 

 difference which is neceffary, fince their ftru6lure is not the 

 fame. The abfolute need of oxvgcn, which is equally felt by 

 both; the fimilitude of their organs; the analogous move- 

 ments in the ufe of thefe organs ; and, in the la(l place, the 

 inconvenience there would be to refufe life and fenfation to 

 other plants, while we are obliged to acknowledge it in 

 the two microfcopic plants which I examined, befides thofe 

 alluded to in this memoir; are all proofs on which the life 

 and fenfibilitv of plants are founded. It muft, neverthelefs, be 

 confeffed, that the little analogy which there is between their 

 organs and ours, will not permit (i": to eftablifli thefe proofs 

 on facts, and to give them the evidence of demonftration. 

 It appears, however, very furprifing that nature grants to ve- 

 getables a force and an energy which it feems to have refufed 

 to animals. I allude to the property which the former pof- 

 fefs, not only of decompofing every kind of bodies, but of col- 

 Icdting the'elements to form new compounds, and thus to 

 produce foflils and even metals. Animals are deftitute of 

 this property, or at leaft enjoy it only in a weak degree. 



XXIV. Life and fenfibility, however, in different, ani- 

 mals exhibit degrees fo various and diflerent, become 

 weaker, and dccrcafc by gradations fo infenfiblc, that the 

 piiilofophic obferver can fcarcely fix their limits, and afcer- 

 tain where they begin and where they end. It even appears 

 that fenfibility, to judge at lead by its effcils, is not altogether 

 of the fame nature in the different kinds of animals. The 

 numerous obfervations and experiments, which I have made 

 for years, on the ienfibility of animals, particularly the 

 cold-blooded, and on the return of fomc of them from a 

 flate of deatlj to that of life, leave no doubt that there are 

 a great many of them in which the fevereft wounds occafiou 

 neither fenfation nor pain. For example, if the head of a fly * 



be 



' The nat\ir;ilift and real pliilofoplier will not be furprifcd to fee thi: 



author fix his attention mi a fly, an infcft confidcrcd by flit vulgar as con- 



uroutiojc. The fmuUcU inlctt enjoys life and fcnfatkiu a& well us the 



ti 4 largcft 



