332 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



Buffou has said that if animals did not exist, the nature of man would 

 have been still more incomprehensible. This is particularly true of the nature 

 of his diseases, and it would no doubt be worthy of a nation which has set 

 the first example of so many other useful institutions, to set also that of a 

 similar and truly experimental study of the evils which afflict humanity. It 

 would be worthy of her thus to realize the wish of a great physician,— of 

 livi, who, in the 17th century, proposed establishments in which the 

 sos of animals might be studied with the view of illustrating- and bring- 

 ing to p. rfectjou the study of the diseases of man. In order to form an idea 

 of wl J et be done in medicine by experiments on animals, we have 



only to look at « bat has already been done in physiology. 



I< it not from the experiments of Harvey, Hunter, Haller, Reaumur, 

 Spallanzani, and Bicbat, that there has arisen all those discoveries, not less 

 admirable than unexpected, of the circulation of the blood, the course of 

 the lymph, th 'v of the nerves to transmit sensibility, the property 



of t',1 . ontract, the action of the gastric fluids in digestion, and 



the opposite qu il.ties of the red and the blark blood, &c. 1 do not speak of 

 twenty discoveries in our own days; for it is well known that a discovery, in 

 order "to l.e admired must be old, and to have, as Father Malebranche, ex- 

 pressed it, a venerable beard. 



Every thins: should make us hope that the ideas which we have stated 

 respecting the progress which human medicine may expect fsom experi- 

 ments made on animals, w ill not be disdained in our days ; for nobody is now 

 ignorant that every thing depends upon another in the living economy, dis- 

 eases— Innctions, and organs;— that we cannot act upon diseases but by 

 function-,— upon functions but by organs; and that thus therapeutics is 

 founded upon pathology— pathology on physiology, a. id physiology upon 

 anatomy. — J'lourens on the effects of Cold, iicvue Eacydo'pcri.iquc. 



Plants urith white Finic,_ r*.— Various lists of varieties of plants with white 

 flower- have been given in your valuable Magazine, and much interest (if 

 we may judge from the numerous correspondents who have appeared) seems 

 to be taken on the subject; but, alter all, very little has been brought to 

 bear upon the point, as your correspond nts have mostly given bare lists, 

 with ut statins: the nature ( r qualify "/the soil, or peculiar hobitat of their 

 plants: so that, from the mere (numeration of varieties of plants, without 

 reference to the circumstances 1 have mentioned, we gain little advantage, 

 and no conclusion can bo drawn. Having myself frequently met with varie- 

 ties ot plains in botanical rambles, 1 hare tried to ascertain what causes 

 operate to i Imnire the colour of tin- blossom, and I find that it is sometimes 

 merely the effect of a peculiar habitat; sometimes the nature of the soil on 

 which the plant grows appears to be the only reason; and occasionally an 

 accidental circumstance has ni- en a richness to the soil, and manuring it has 

 caused an alteration in the appearance of its vegetation ; c. r/. the common 

 bird's. foot trefoil (.Lotus comiculitus), which in dry upland pastures is of a 

 brilliant yellow, on the red marly bank- of the Severn assumes a deep sau- 

 guine oransre hue; and a triend informs me that he has observed it on the 

 lias marl, a tew miles on the western side of Worcester, perfectly white: in 

 this case the soil affects the flowers of the plant. The bluebell f.S'cilla nu- 

 tans) is not uncommon, in the vicinity of Worcester, with white blossoms; 

 but 1 have uniformly observed, wherever it so occurs, that the spot is un- 

 commonly shady, or that a wood has, at no very distant time, occupied the 

 place. In these cases the peculiar locality has an effect upon the plant ; 

 and in a deep shady wood on the western side ol the Malvern Hills, where, 

 this summer, I found a number of luxuriant plants of the Paris quadrifolia, 

 in one spot of the thicket where a strangling sunbeam was admitted through 

 the trees, and glanced upon one of the plants, the blossom was withered 

 and shrunk, and the four leaves variegated. In illustration of the acciden- 

 tal luxuriance of plants, 1 may mention that I found the Orchis morin, in 

 a moist field near Worcester, double its usual height, and with flowers of a 

 delicate light pink; and around the plant, at this particular spot in the 

 marsh, I noticed some swine's dung had been dropped. In the list of 

 plants (p. 161,) I have noticed in this neighbourhood, varying in the colour 

 of their flowers, though I have mentioned the particulars above, yet, in 

 many instances, I cannot satisfactorily account for the variation. I think, 



