28 MEMOIR OP CAMPER. 



which he was now so honourably called upon to dis- 

 charge. He accordingly established himself and fa- 

 mily at Groningen in the autumn of 1763 ; and was 

 shortly afterwards appointed the physician of the city. 

 At his inaugmration as professor in 1764, he deli- 

 vered a discourse, On the Extraordinary Analogy 

 between Vegetables and Animals; and this was soon 

 followed by an essay On Lameness, and its natu- 

 ral Causes; and, shortly after, by a memoir On 

 the Mode in 'which broken Bones are healed; which 

 being sent to one of the learned societies of Edin- 

 burgh, led to his being elected a member of its Royal 

 Society, and also of the Royal College of Physi- 

 cians. 



The subject of the analogy between vegetables 

 and animals is at once most interesting and difficult. 

 The Professor contended that the grand and leading 

 difference between these two kingdoms in nature 

 consisted in this, that animals have nerves, which 

 being connected with all the senses, unite them in a 

 common centre ; whilst, on the other hand, no dis- 

 tinct nervous filaments were discoverable in vege- 

 tables. But, while the Professor laid down this 

 broad distinction, he still argued, that, since vege- 

 tables are provided with bloodvessels and glands, and 

 divided by the distinction of sexes, and as, moreover, 

 it cannot be denied that in animals there are irritable 

 parts, in which nervous matter makes a part, though 

 it cannot be demonstrated to the senses ; so, he con- 

 tended, it might be admitted that a substance ana- 



