82 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



provided with a nervous system. They are, therefore, insensible 

 to what we term pain ; neither can they hold those relations to 

 the external world which are held by sensible beings. But as 

 plants are thus deprived of a nervous system, is there any thing in 

 nature which supplies its place 1 Professor Draper answers this 

 question in the following paragraph, p. 102. 



" If thus, in animal existence, we find the various nervous ma- 

 chines divided off, and the impressions of light, of sound, of taste, 

 committed to a separate apparatus, how is it with plants 1 The rays 

 of the sun are the true nervous principle of plants !" 



We have not noticed this paragraph for the purpose of com- 

 ment, but have given it to our readers for their consideration. 

 It is, we confess, a beautiful idea. It is, however, too imaginative 

 to be admitted into a philosophical treatise. The resemblance and 

 analogies between plants and animals, are too distant ; the types 

 upon which they are constructed are too dissimilar to admit of the 

 comparison ; and in fact, we scarcely allow ourselves to compare 

 the organs of vegetables with those of animals. We might as well 

 call the solar beams the muscular system, as the nervous, inasmuch 

 as plants bend towards the light. 



We have already expressed our views generally of the work of 

 Prof. D. It contains probably, all that is known of those forces 

 which modify the growth of plants ; or in other words, it contains 

 a full exposition of what is termed the chemistry of plants. The 

 subject is, however, followed out so much into details, that it takes 

 a very wide range, embracing therein considerations relative to 

 botany, physiology, geology, chemistry and natural philosophy. 

 The work is in quarto of 324 pp., well printed, and on good 

 paper. 



