NOVUM ORGAN UM. 135 



stone, when burnt, frozen, pricked, cut, bent, bruised, and 

 the like ; although there be no sensation, owing to the ab 

 sence of animal spirit. Again, wonderful as it may appear, 

 the roots and branches of trees are similar instances. For 

 every vegetable swells and throws out its constituent parts 

 towards the circumference, both upwards and downwards. 

 And there is no difference between the roots and branches, 

 except that the root is buried in the earth, and the branches 

 are exposed to the air and sun. For if one take a young 

 and vigorous shoot, and bend it down to a small portion of 

 loose earth, although it be not fixed to the ground, yet will 

 it immediately produce a root, and not a branch. And, 

 vice versa, if earth be placed above, and so forced down 

 with a stone or any hard substance, as to confine the plant 

 and prevent its branching upwards, it will throw out 

 branches into the air downwards. The gums of trees and 

 most rock gems are similar instances ; for both of them are 

 exudations, and filtered juices, derived in the former instance 

 from trees, in the latter from stones; the brightness and 

 clearness of both arising from a delicate and accurate filter 

 ing. For nearly the same reason, the hair of animals is less 

 beautiful and vivid in its colour, than the plumage of most 

 birds, because the juices are less delicately filtered through 

 the skin than through the quills. 



The scrotum of males and matrix of females are also 

 similar instances : so that the noble formation which con 

 stitutes the difference of the sexes appears to differ only as 

 to the one being internal and the other external ; a greater 

 degree of heat causing the genitals to protrude in the male, 

 whilst the heat of the female being too weak to effect this, 

 they are retained internally. 



The fins of fishes, and the feet of quadrupeds, or the feet 

 and wings of birds, are similar instances ; to which Aristotle 

 adds the four folds in the motion of serpents ;* so that in 

 the formation of the universe the motion of animals appears 

 to be chiefly effected by four joints or bendings. 



The teeth of land animals and the beaks of birds are simi 

 lar instances, whence it is clear, that in all perfect animals 

 there is a determination of some hard substance towards 

 the mouth. Again the resemblance and conformity of man 

 to an inverted plant is not absurd. For the head is the 

 root of the nerves and animal faculties, and the seminal 



* Is not this very hasty generalization 1 Do serpents move with four folds 

 only 1 Observe also the motion of centipedes and other insects. 



