a Comparison lelwcen Aiiimal and Vegelahle Life. 93 



a spiral within the interior cylinder. The liuman liair shows 

 not tliat variety of shape ; three or four sorts are all that are 

 ever discovered. Bat in tlie vegeta!)le there is scarcely a form 

 possible that is not imitated: but these I call iyistrtimenis, vot 

 hairs, since they much more resemble tlie various invented glasses 

 of a laboratory than the simplicity of a hair ; to each of 'these, 

 however, an absori)cnt vessel is adiled to convey the juices thus 

 acquired to their various places of destination ; while tiiosp vessels 

 in the human bodv are thin pellucid cylinders arising from the 

 various surfaces of the skin, and running to a common duct 

 called the thoracic duct. They are of two kinds, the lymphatics 

 and the lacleah. The first the vegetables possess, but not the 

 last. The lymphatics take up the colourless fluid called lymph 

 (whence they have received tlieir name), and convey it from all 

 the parts of the body to the same point. Thus the parts of the 

 blood, which either from their thin oilv or nutritive qualities had 

 been separated from the red blood or circulating mass and thrown 

 out by the exhaling arteries, are absorbed after having performed 

 their'various uses, and are again conducted by the lymphatics into 

 the circulation. But the vegetable having no secretions from 

 the blood, the lymphatics receive from the absorb.ent vessels those 

 juices introduced from tlie atmosplieie by particular hairs, and 

 which are partly secreted in the glands till wanted. The rest 

 (after performing their various purposes) are carried into the 

 nourisjiing or sap-vessels. But in one point of resemblance both 

 agree; — absorption in iioth bodies helps to remove those injuries 

 which happen to the frame by accidents. If .a tumour proceed 

 from a blow or cut, the absorbents will soon begin to act : a fluid 

 poured from its ruptured vessels will be absorbed bv its lympha- 

 tics and carried again into circulatinn. Tlie black or green spot 

 which is left will disappear, and be taken up in I)oth ; fresh sup- 

 plies of wholesome nourishment are brouglit from every part to 

 recruit the bad flesh or wood that lias been injured : anS in the 

 plant, so great is the haste made to remedy the defect of this 

 kind, that it rarely happens that a wound is made without sucli 

 a quantity of nutriment being sent to the part that it generallv 

 finishes by being a nursery for new buds. The aljsorbents of 

 both beings are full of valves ; and as to the glands which secrete 

 the oil and other matters, they are certainly in t!ie vegetable as 

 well as the human form, though not so numerous: the two nec- 

 taries of the flower are of this kind, iiome excretory ducts aho 

 plants must poiscs^ ; since much matter is conveyed away that 

 would otherwise impede the flow of the saj) : for when the new 

 wood is formed, all the old divisions of the piece which had been 

 before bark, disappear (piickly, but not so hastily as not to show 

 it is drawn off by degrees by some vcsseli! upprnpriuted for the 



purpose. 



