40 Experiments and Ohfervaiions 



It has been fuppofed, that tho' Gypfum in fuch fmall quan- 

 tities may not ferve as food, it may ftill operate as the phyfic of 

 plants, and ftrengthen their power of digellion. This fuppofition 

 is liable in my mind to ftrong objeSlions. ift. I can hardly 

 conceive that plants (whofe lives it would feem.muil be very 

 regular) fliould have fuch weakly conflitutions as to require 

 phviic from their infancy. 2d. If we judge from the analogy 

 between animals and vegetables, we fiiould fuppofe that a 

 flimulus conftantly applied would lofe its effefts, and ulti- 

 mately relax and weaken the patient. 3d. If plants were thus 

 effeQed by Gypfumy its advantages fliould be (contrary to the 

 faftl comparatively greater in rich than in poor foils. To 

 increafe the appetite where there is nothing to eat, would be 

 with Shakefpear's Grumio, to furnifli the muftard without the 

 beef. 4th. As plants in wet foils are probably mofl fubjeft to 

 crudities and indigellion, it is fuppofable that they would be 

 mod benefitted by (limulents, and yet they receive but little 

 benefit from Gypfam. 



By thefe objections (which perhaps appear ilronger to me 

 ^than they otherwife would from the fupport they afford to my 

 fyftem) I am induced to rejeft each of thefe theories, in order 

 to make room for the following, which fuppofes that Calcarious 

 and Gypjious earths fiirnifh food to plants, without being confu- 

 med by the fupply they aflbrd, that they are the fiewards, and 

 not lliephyficiansof the vegetable family. 



