Chap, ii.] of Plants. De Saussurc. 507 



for the view that heat in plants is simply a result of their respi- 

 ration, as it is in animals. It is not necessary to describe at 

 length the experiments which were made on heat in plants 

 before 1822 ; they were one and all vitiated by a want of clear- 

 ness in the statement of the question, which made success 

 impossible ; it was assumed that this heat by raising the tem- 

 perature of the plant would make itself felt by surrounding 

 objects, and it was sought for exactly where it is least to be 

 found, in the wood, in fruits and tubers, and generally in resting, 

 inactive parts. Moreover the previous experiments, collected 

 in Goeppert's book 'Ueber die Warmeentwicklung der Pflanzen,' 

 1830, were so unskilfully managed that they could not possibly 

 lead to any result. Nor could the question whether plants 

 really develope internal heat, as animals do, be determined by 

 a few cases of active development of heat in flowers, because 

 an idea was prevalent at the time in connection with the theory 

 of a vital force, that flowers as the organs of reproduction alone 

 possessed the power of generating heat. 



Lavoisier had clearly perceived in 1777 that the combustion 

 of substances containing carbon by inhaled oxygen was the 

 source of animal heat, and had proved it by experiments. 

 Senebier, who first observed the rise of temperature in the in- 

 florescence of Arum by the thermometer, had at least suggested 

 in his work on physiology of 1800 (iii. p. 315) that a vigorous 

 absorption of oxygen might be the cause of the phenomenon. 

 Bory de St. Vincent reported in 1804 that Hubert, the owner 

 of a plantation in Madagascar, had observed among other things 

 that the air in which the flowering spike of one of the Aroideae 

 had developed its heat could support neither animal respiration 

 nor combustion. These indications were however disregarded, 

 until de Saussure in 1822 proved directly the connection between 

 the absorption of oxygen and the rise of temperature in flowers. 

 It was however a long time before heat in plants was con 

 ceived of as a general fact necessarily connected with their 

 respiration. This conception would have swept away the 



