06 EVOLUTION OF LIFE. 



lar and unbroken tenor, without possessing, so 

 far as we can detect, any opposing or control- 

 ing power, by whose energy the vital actions 

 can be arrested or suppressed.* 



By the condition of animals, as well as of the 

 human species itself, during sleep, 'and more 

 especially as they subsist in the foetal state, 

 some idea may be formed of the nature of 

 vegetable existence. The foetus extracts nou- 

 rishment from the maternal system, to which it 

 is attached, as a cherry does from the parent 

 stock. Although it possesses organs of sense, 

 it is destitute of feeling ; and with organs of 

 consciousness and of apprehension, it neither 

 reflects on the means of supporting itself, nor 

 is sensible of its own existence ; an animal, in 

 the foetal state, is situated in a manner exactly 

 similar to an adult in a profound sleep, and 

 both resemble vegetable life. During sleep, all 

 the organs which subserve to the growth and 

 nutrition of the system, perform their functions 

 more perfectly, than they are found to do, dur- 

 ing a state of watchfulness. Respiration and 

 digestion, absorption and circulation, secre- 

 tion, as well as excretion, go on without the 

 energy of the will ; the energy of the will has a 

 tendency to impede these different functions in 



* Mr. A. KNIGHT has decidedly proved that vegetables 

 have no sensation. 



