﻿68 LIVING PLANTS 



Touch the leaf of a sensitive plant and see it 

 shrink away into the smallest compass at- 

 tainable. 



What do all these animal and plant move- 

 ments mean, except it be that the individual 

 has felt something and acts responsively, ac- 

 cording to its ability. And yet it may be ob- 

 jected that while man and some of the higher 

 animals may possess genuine feeling, that is, 

 to be more explicit, may experience conscious 

 pain, yet the lower animals and all plants 

 only react mechanically upon stimulation, 

 such as frictional contact, shock, light, heat, 

 electricity, etc. To illustrate: when a dog 

 howls upon being hit with a stone, it will 

 generally be admitted that it is because he 

 suffers pain; but when an earthworm strug- 

 gles as the angler threads it upon the hook, a 

 question arises whether the movement is in- 

 dicative of pain or whether it is simply reac- 

 tionarv, like the quivering of a mass of jellv 

 when struck ; and when a twig is pulled from 

 a tree no more thought of pain is connected 

 with the act than in the breaking of a stone. 

 In discussing a subject like this considerable 

 difficulty is found in using terms in such a 

 oi'ter^s way that they will convey an exact and uni- 



form meaning. In the task I have essayed, 

 nothing is easier than to upset the whole ar- 

 gument by employing the words feeling, 



Definition 



