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SECTION IV. 



Note I. Page 121. 



Malpighi was born in 1688. He was a native and physician of 

 Bologna, and professor of medicine in the university of that city. For 

 his discoveries in anatomy he has been justly celebrated, in conjunc- 

 tion with the well-known Borelli, and for having thrown light on the 

 diseases of the liver. He was the first writer who gave to the world 

 a system of the true anatomy of plants, of which one of the most im- 

 portant doctrines is the theory of the circulation of the sap, its ascent 

 in the wood, and its descent in the bark. His work seems to have 

 appeared in 1671. In 1669, he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society of London ; and he kept up a regular correspondence with 

 several of its members till his death. 



Dr. Nehemiah Grew, the father of English phytology, and one of 

 the most eminent physicians of his time, was a contemporary of Mal- 

 pighi. He published, about the same period, his " Anatomy of Plants," 

 wherein he advanced, on similar principles, the doctrine of the circula- 

 tion of the sap. The second edition bears date London, 1688 ; so that, 

 as they investigated and wrote in different countries, and without com- 

 munication with each other, on this obscure subject, so they justly divide 

 the honour of realizing the conjectures of the Greek naturalists. Not- 

 withstanding the importance of later researches, their works are held in 

 high esteem, down to the present period. 



Note H. Page 122. 



It was extremely natural for phytologists, after the discovery of the 

 circulation of the blood in animals, to extend the analogy to the vegeta- 

 ble kingdom. They had, in the latter, no visible organs, corresponding 

 to the stomach, the intestines, or the lacteals, and above all, to the heart, 

 the mainspring and centre of the circulation of the blood ; but these 

 wants were readily supplied. The root was supposed to correspond to 

 both the mouth and the stomach, and to efl'ect such a change on the 



