﻿LIVING PLANTS 



and states" ("Human Intellect," par. 67), or 

 with Locke that it is "the perception of what 

 passes in a man's own mind" ("Human Un- 

 derstanding," H, i., 19), and then to pass 

 down the scale of being and admit the posses- 

 sion of consciousness in such animals as are 

 thought to be endowed with a "soul" or 

 "mind," according to the definition these 

 words are permitted to bear. Anatomical 

 structure is made to furnish considerable evi- 

 dence in this connection. Perhaps Grant Al- 

 len's remarks about the earwig in his lucubra- 

 tion on "microscopic brains" present suffi- 

 cienth^ well the attitude of most writers at the 

 present time. "Of course most insects have 

 no real brains," he says. "The nerve sub- 

 stance in their heads is a mere collection of ill- 

 arranged ganglia directly connected with 

 their organs of sense. Whatever man maybe, 

 an earwig at least is a conscious, or rather 

 a semi-conscious automaton. He has just a 

 few knots of nerve-cells in his little pate, each 

 of which leads straight from his dim eye, or 

 his vague ear, or his indefinite organs of 

 taste; and his muscles obey the promptings 

 of external sensations without possibilit}^ of 

 hesitation or consideration, as mechanicall_v 

 as the valve of a steam-engine obeys the gov- 

 ernor-balls" ("Evolutionist at Large," 2). 

 Again in speaking of slugs and snails he says: 



