62 



THE farmers' cabinet. 



iVo. 4< 



long to matter in general. We can form a! 

 tolerable idea from the well known principlesi 

 of atTtrregratioii, how many chanjjes lake place 

 in uriorffaiiized bodies ; but by what law a 

 carnation seed, when placed in the earth, pro-j 

 duces a group of beautiful flowers, or how a' 

 simple acorn unfolds itself, and becomes a 

 stately oak, are questions which have never! 

 been answered in a satisfactory manner. 1 

 Happily the invention of the microscope' 

 has opened to our view a new world of ex- 

 istence, and by improvements subsequently 

 made on its construction, a solution has been 

 found to many results, which have hitherto' 

 been classed among the impenetrable secrets' 

 of nature. Of these the polype, brought to 

 light by Trembly, in 1741, are the most re- 

 markable. Although their reality was for 



put into a cylindrical glass vessel, with an 

 equal proportionof the boiling liquor. It was 

 immediately covered close with a glass cov- 

 er. Twenty-four hours afterwards, Mr. El- 

 lis examined a small drop of this liquid by 

 Wilson's microscope, when he plainly dis- 

 tinguished a number of objects, of a linear 

 shape, moving to and fro with great celerity. 

 This experiment he repeatedly tried, and al- 

 ways found it to succeed. 



But it is not by infusion merely that the 

 existence of this vital energy is ascertained. 

 If we examine small portions of leaves, and 

 the delicate parts of plants, we shall find li- 

 near bodies, exactly in appearance to those 

 already mentioned, imbedded in every part 

 of a leaf and flower. If a little juice be 

 pressed out of a herbaceous plant, and exam- 



some time disputed, all doubt on the subject ined by the compound microscope, it will be 



has long ago vanished, and we have now an 

 acknowledged race of little creatures, which 

 can scarcely be ranked either among animals 

 or vegetables, yet evidently partaking of the 

 nature of both. Buffon and Needham were 

 amontr the foremost of those who maintained 

 that these little objects were only organized 

 particles, from which animals are formed, 

 and were not possessed of vitality. But since 

 the invention of the compound microscope, 

 facts have transpired which warrant the 

 opinion, that even the polype is produced by 

 an awency, whose energetic ramifications ex- 

 tend°still further into the animal and vegeta- 

 ble world. 



Mr. Bywater, of Liverpool, who has for 

 some time been engaged ioi extensive physi- 

 ological inquiries, mentions the following ex- 

 periment : — " If the weather be warm, let a 

 wine glass, half filled with pure water, be 

 mixed with about a tea spoon-ful of flour, 

 and then we shall find, by inspecting a small 

 portion on a slip of glass, that the mixture is 

 filled with linear bodies, which may be so 

 far excited as to manifest a quick writhing 

 action when touched or stirred with an exter- 

 nal body ; but in a short time, if the weath- 

 er continue warm, these linear bodies will 

 have acquired such a degree of vital energy 

 as to show that the mixture is full of them, 

 writhing about in every direction, without 

 beinff excited to action by external agents. — 

 It was by viewing an infusion of the pollen 

 of flowers (continues Mr. Bywater) with one 

 of Wilson's highest magnifiers, that I first 

 observed these linear bodies, although I after- 

 wards found, that by using the compound 

 microscope, a more perfect view of their na- 

 ture and character might be obtained. That 

 these linear objects are real bodies, is evident 

 from their becoming magnified like other 

 bodies, in proportion to the magnifying pow- 

 er used." 



In Adam's treatise on the microscope, an 

 experiment is noticed by a Mr. Ellis, which 

 fully corroborates that of Mr. Bywater. A 

 poiatoe was boiled till it was reduced to a 

 mealy consistency. A part of it was then 



found full of these linear bodies, writhing 

 about in a very active manner. 



It has long been a perplexing question in 

 vegetable physiology, how the evident se- 

 cretive processes of vegetables are carried on ? 

 Sir James Smith says, that " the agency of 

 the vital principle alone, can account for 

 these wonders, though it cannot to our un- 

 derstandings explain them." Now it ap- 

 pears to me that the vital principle here al- 

 luded to, and considered so inexplicable by 

 this great botanist, is the same energetic 

 force, the same linear bodies discovered by 

 the experiments of By water and Ellis. May 

 we not refer the different secretive processes 

 which are carried on in vegetables, to this 

 kind of vital energy, when we find the very 

 parts in which these secretions take place, 

 completely filled with the secreting agents ? 

 several collateral arofuments mifht be addu- 

 ced m favor of this system ; for instance, the 

 coralines are many of them such beautiful 

 vegetable imitations, that they were at one 

 period classed by naturalists among plants ; 

 but it has since been clearly demonstrated 

 that they are the secretive productions of a 

 race of little animalcules, which are imbed- 

 ded in their apparent leaves and branches. 



Nor is it by a kw analogies that this rea- 

 soning is supported ; the whole vegetable 

 phenomena evidently points to a similar 

 principle. Even the soil in which the plant 

 grows partakes, in a certain degree, of this 

 peculiarity. To test this, let a little soil be 

 mixed with a drop of water on a slip of glass, 

 and then quickly examined by the micro- 

 scope, and it will be found filled with active 

 linear bodies, similar to those obtained from 

 vegetables and vegetable infusion. 



JVorth remembering. — We have been in- 

 formed, by a gentleman who has had prac- 

 tical proof of its success, of a new mode of 

 keeping fruits fresh for the table, as grapes, 

 plumbs, &c. a long lime after they have been 

 gathered. It is simply to alternate them in 

 layers with cotton batting, in clean stone 

 jars, and to place them in a chamber secure 



