852 



SYMPATHY. 



and thus seemingly affording evidence of that 

 individuality of one half of the body which 

 was spoken of as a feasible opinion above. 



PLANTS. The leaf of the higher plants, 

 ^hich is the unit or individual of botanists, is 

 bilateral and symmetrical always in idea, 

 generally in fact. These leaves are associated 

 together to form buds, branches, flowers, or 

 fruits, in whorls. Symmetrical figures are 

 often produced by these associations, but yet 

 the pattern is spiral. In watching the develop- 

 ment of spores of conferva, they are seen, whilst 

 still but single cells, to shoot out in various 

 manners, the majority of which are quite irre- 

 concilable with symmetry, either bilateral or ra- 

 diating. Whatever may be its import,^ it is 

 quite certain, from the veVy nature of symmetry, 

 that the cause of it must be internal, that is 

 to say, within the body in which it is mani- 

 fested. But it has been conclusively deter- 

 mined, by experiments, that external influences, 

 acting upon them in certain directions only, 

 such as light, heat, and gravitation, exert a 

 considerable power in determining the form 

 of vegetable productions. Animals, doubt- 

 less, are also greatly affected by these agencies, 

 yet, as they enjoy the faculty of locomotion 

 whereby all parts of them are successively 

 turned towards the directions from which 

 these forces emanate, the form impressed 

 upon them by internal causes, suffers little or 

 no distortion therefrom; but plants, being 

 destitute of locomotion, continually receive 

 these influences in a partial manner, and con- 

 sequently we the less expect to meet with 

 symmetry among them. Whenever their in- 

 ternal forces tend to make them symmetrical, 

 the partial action of external agents is apt to 

 disturb their symmetry. It is this, probably, 

 that renders the germinating conferva cell 

 unsymmetrical. 



CRYSTALS of unorganised matter are spoken 

 of as symmetrical. The symmetry, however, 

 which they exhibit is not ,a bilateral sym- 

 metry. It consists of the jrepetition of the 

 same angles and facets at the poles of an 

 axis, but the repetitions are not reverses. 

 The reader may illustrate my meaning by cut- 

 ting a rhomboid in paper, when he will observe 

 that each of its angles and sides are twice re- 

 peated, but he will find it impossible to fold it 

 so that one half shall coincide with the other. 



The precise import of the symmetry of or- 

 ganised bodies is, as repeatedly indicated above, 

 as yet involved in mystery. Albeit a fact so 

 evident, so constantly obvious to our senses, 

 as often, like gravitation, to pass unheeded, 

 it is a great and an important fact, a fact of 

 the same order with those which have already 

 led to the establishment and demonstration of 

 grand, comprehensive, and unassailable theo- 

 ries the bright triumphs of the human intel- 

 lect, that have reduced to order, simplicity, 

 and connexion, what before was all confused, 

 complicated, and disjointed, a fact, there- 

 fore, that inspires us with hope for our, as 

 yet, imperfect science of anatomy. It seems 

 to tell of radiant forces, of certain, definite, 

 mathematical, and inexorable laws, concerned 

 in the production of animals. Taken with 



the other important fact serial homology, 

 it seems to suggest for the development of 

 Vertebrata and Articulata the multiplica- 

 tion of centres in a serial line of centres 

 of radiant force, that then proceed to in- 

 duce the surrounding particles to arrange 

 themselves in a symmetrical figure. In truth, 

 as the mind contemplates this fact, various 

 theories pass before it, yet shadowy, change- 

 able, and indistinct as a phantasmagoria. One 

 day, perhaps, some one of these shall meet 

 with definite enunciation and clear demon- 

 stration ; at present we must be content with 

 putting the fact of symmetry prominently 

 forward and exhibiting it in various points of 

 view, with declaring it an important fact, 

 and not a matter of course. 



(S. R. Pittard.) 



SYMPATHETIC NERVE. (See SUP- 

 PLEMENT.) 



SYMPATHY (ffw-va9os). Sympathy may 

 be defined as the assumption by different 

 individuals, or by different parts of the same 

 individual, of the same or an analogous physio- 

 logical or pathological state at the same time, 

 or in rapid succession. It is popularly known 

 that the act of yawning, performed by one 

 individual in a company, is apt to induce in 

 many of the others an irresistible tendency to 

 the same act. In a similar manner, the excite- 

 ment of certain emotions (mirth or sadness, 

 laughter or tears) is apt to spread through 

 an assemblage of persons with extraordinary 

 rapidity. The power of eloquence, of music, or 

 of spectacle,to produce such effects, is witnessed 

 every day in places of public resort, whether 

 for devotion, business, or amusement. 



Many instances are known in which con- 

 vulsions have been excited in persons not 

 previously subject to them, by the sight of a 

 patient in an epileptic fit. And peculiar ner- 

 vous disorders, of a convulsive kind, have 

 been found to affect nearly all the members 

 of a community without the slightest evidence 

 of their being contagious or infectious. An 

 impression upon an organ of sense may pro- 

 duce effects very different in their nature to 

 any thing which could be anticipated ; and 

 these many be purely of a physical kind, or 

 they may act primarily upon the mind. Thus 

 certain odours will induce syncope in some 

 people; and the smell of a savoury dish to a 

 hungry person, or even the mention or the 

 thought of a meal, will excite a flow of saliva. 

 The emotion of pity excited by the sight of 

 some object of compassion, or by a narrative 

 of a mournful kind, will produce a copious 

 flow of tears. 



All such phenomena are said to result from 

 Sympathy. When one yawns, immediately 

 in consequence of another's yawning, the 

 former evidently and truly sympathises with 

 the latter ; and the convulsions which are 

 induced by the sight of another in a fit, are 

 not less sympathetic. The individual in whom 

 the convulsions are induced, sympathises with 

 the other. Such obvious instances of sym- 

 pathy between different individuals led to the 



