8 



ABSTINENCE. 



the internal parts of an animal absorbs in a manner 

 quite different from that of the external. There are 

 many substances which, taken into the stomach, or 

 exposed to any of the internal surfaces, act as poisons, 

 in which the hands may be washed with perfect im- 

 punity ; though there are others, the absorption of 

 which by any part of the body is equally deleteri- 

 ous. But as the internal surfaces are the most deli- 

 cate, it may be presumed that absorption, especially 

 that of noxious gases, takes place most readily at 

 them. In most cases, however, the absorbing surface 

 performs other functions, such as that of secretion ; so 

 that it is not very easy to ascertain whether greater 

 injury be done by the mere absorption of the offen- 

 sive matter, or by the direct action on the surface at 

 which that matter is absorbed. 



The readiness with which the surfaces of animals, 

 especially the inner surfaces, absorb different sub- 

 stances, is the means of much good as well as harm ; 

 and most medicines which are what is termed alter- 

 ative, or intended to produce a gradual change in the 

 body, without any violent or specific action of the 

 intestinal canal, produce their effects by being ab- 

 sorbed. It is to be understood, however, that the 

 effect is not in the mere absorption, which is a mecha- 

 nical process, but in some subsequent action ; and that 

 action sometimes very rapidly diffuses itself over the 

 whole body. 



ABSTINENCE literally means voluntarily refrain- 

 ing from taking food ; but it is often applied to all cases 

 where food is not taken, in what may be considered the 

 average quantity, whether voluntarily or not. This is 

 the sense in which it is used in natural history, and as 

 such it is an important branch of the physiology both 

 of animals and of vegetables. It stands opposed to 

 repletion, or excessive feeding, and the wholesome 

 state for both animals and vegetables lies between the 

 two ; but the precise point in any one instance is a 

 matter to be determined by actual observation of that 

 particular instance. 



That different plants have different capacities for 

 food, and that these capacities fluctuate with the 

 seasons, and other external circumstances and agencies 

 to which the plants are exposed, must be obvious to 

 every one who has paid the slightest attention to the 

 progress of vegetation. It must also be observed by 

 every one that, in the same species of plant, the quan- 

 tity and also the quality of the matter elaborated de- 

 pend very much on the quantity of food. If it is in 

 rich soil and exposed to a damp atmosphere and 

 moderate warmth, the produce is very great ; but the 

 parts are soft and spongy ; and if any part of the plant 

 be used as human food, that part is crude, tasteless, 

 and does not, in the same weight, furnish so much of 

 even less palatable nourishment as that which is 

 grown with more moderate feeding. This principle 

 is general, and it is a most important one in that first 

 of all arts, the cultivation of vegetables ; but it must 

 be received with some explanations. Plants are 

 naturally adapted to different situations ; some to the 

 waters over which the air is constantly impregnated 

 with vapour ; some to the arid places, where there 

 is little moisture either in the air or the earth ; and 

 there are habits intermediate between all these. In 

 every case, however, there may be discovered a 

 medium state, which is better suited to the whole 

 action of the plant, than if it were either more highly 

 fed or subjected to greater abstinence. When we 

 cultivate, either for human food, or for that of domes- 



tic animals, it is not the whole plant that is our object 

 so much as some product of it ; we sock, for instance, 

 to produce more succulent or farinaceous matter in 

 the seed, the bulb, the tube, the stem, or the leaves ; 

 and up to a certain point of forcing, by prepared 

 soils and manures, and by sheltering from the cold 

 and violent currents of the air, we attain our object ; 

 but there is always a limit, which if we once pass, we 

 defeat our object ; the functions of the plant are im- 

 paired, it ceases to be fertile, and it becomes unable to 

 bear even moderate changes of temperature. The 

 ultimate seasonal action of every plant is the ripening 

 of the seed ; and before that is perfected the action of 

 growth as increasing the quantity of matter in the plant 

 ought to cease also. Those plants in which several 

 fructifications are in progress at the same time as the 

 orange among the trees of rich soils in warm cli- 

 mates, and the common juniper among the shrubs of 

 cold and rather sterile places arc exceptions, though 

 in them each succession of fruit obeys the same law 

 as those which bring forward but one crop at a time ; 

 and it is found that when planted in a soil too rich and 

 warm, the juniper not only remains sterile, but is 

 difficult to be kept alive. 



In annual vegetables, the cultivator can adapt the 

 soil to the plant by experience ; and it is there found 

 that change of place will correct the bad habit which 

 the plant in time acquires, either from too rich or too 

 poor a soil. Seed corn from the hill runs less to 

 straw and yields better on the rich and sheltered bot- 

 toms ; and seed corn from these grows stronger and 

 ripens earlier on the hill. It is the same with bulbs 

 and tubers, and indeed with cultivated plants gene- 

 rally. One cultivation stimulates one part of the 

 system of the plant more than it does the other 

 parts ; and as the seed must partake of the artificial 

 qualities (the qualities produced by locality and cul- 

 ture) of the plant upon which it is grown, the change 

 from soil to soil tends to restore it back again, by, 

 on the one hand, repairing the exhaustion which had 

 been produced by abstinence, and on the other cor- 

 recting the surfeit which had been caused by repletion. 

 Shortening the duration of plants is one of the effects 

 of high culture ; and though we have no data for as- 

 certaining the early history of the grain plants and 

 pulses which are now known only as cultivated, it is 

 by no means improbable that they all have at one time 

 been perennials ; and the fact of their being capa- 

 ble of multiplying by the roots, is at least a strong 

 presumptive proof that such has been the case ; though 

 it appears that now they have lost so much of their 

 original character that they are unable, without the 

 assistance of human art, to bear the common succes- 

 sion of seasons in our climate for longer than a year 

 or two. 



In plants of longer duration trees for instance 

 whether cultivated for their fruit or their timber, the 

 principle of abstinence cannot be so well applied ; 

 and as in both large growth is the main, because the 

 marketable, object, the chief efforts are in the other 

 direction to produce quantity as rapidly and as abun- 

 dantly as possible, and let the quality be as it may. 

 In general, however, it is best when the seed is 

 gathered from a plant on average soil, and the nurs- 

 ling reared in the same. But on the whole, al>stinence 

 has been very partially applied in the cultivation of 

 vegetables ; though the general principle of its 

 action be plain enough, the details have not been 

 sufficiently studied. 



