60 WONDERS OF ORGANIC LIFE. 



Another interesting phenomenon now requires 

 a brief notice at our hands ; the process by 

 which such injuries as are not necessarily de- 

 structive to life are more or less completely 

 repaired. Thus, for example, a cut wound 

 heals in due time, although a cicatrix, or seam- 

 like mark, remains to testify of the previous 

 mischief. When a branch is rudely torn from 

 a tree, the bark around the wound takes upon 

 itself a curative process, and accumulates ; 

 sometimes the edges of the wounded part meet 

 and unite, but generally the bark forms a 

 thickened ring, leaving an exposed part of pure 

 woody fibre to perish. The reason of this 

 arrangement is obvious. The woody material 

 is to the tree a non-essential, excepting in so 

 far as it is requisite for stability. All the great 

 vital functions of the tree are carried on in the 

 bark, hence the vital energy of the bark is pri- 

 marily directed to the cure of its own laceration. 

 It is a singular fact, that as we descend in the 

 scale of organic creation, and pass from animals 

 with a highly developed brain and nervous 

 system to lower groups, we find the energies of 

 vitality in the curative or restorative processes 

 of wounds and mutilations more and more 



ing grace— vivified after the lapse of intervals of time, more 

 than sufficient, it might be supposed, to have destroyed 

 all traces of them. What a motive should this be to' all 

 who are engaged in offices of Christian philanthropy never to 

 faint through apparent want of success ! The seed 'sown and 

 apparently lost may turn out productive after the lapse of 

 many days. Were facts of this older carefully collected, we 

 might find numerous parallels to the well-known anecdote of 

 the man, who, when nearly a hundred years old, was brought 

 to a saving knowledge of the truth by the recollection of a 

 sermon which he had heard when a mere youth. 



