SYMPATHY. 45? 



of mere continuity of surface, which sort of extension of effect 

 occurs in animals; and the sap is thought to rise from the roots 

 in consequence of the mere expansion of the branches : but all 

 true sympathy is no doubt effected by nerves, though mere nerv- 

 ous connection without peculiar disposition, or property, will not 

 explain it. 



The smaller number of organs and the continuity of most parts 

 of vegetables produce sufficient connection of all spots without 

 the necessity for distinct intervening bodies like nerves, which 

 are absolutely required to connect the numerous, separate, and 

 frequently quite uncontinuous and very distinct, organs of compli- 

 cated animals. 



Although the sympathies of animal systems, not explicable by 

 continuity of surface, but true sympathies, must, I conceive, de- 

 pend upon nervous communication, even where the sympathising 

 part is not naturally stimulated by volition nor known to be stimu- 

 lated to its functions by any thing but its contents, and although 

 nervous communication can always be shown ; still the intervention 



October 23. 1834, when I read it daily, was an account from the Berlin State 

 Gazette, of a branch of a vine introduced into a hothouse, bearing flowers and 

 fruit when the rest had none. Some, as M. Dutrochet, have imagined vegetables 

 to have a nervous system, but never shown it. Dr. Brachet has lately contended 

 for it, but the best botanists consider that this part of his book should not hare 

 been printed. The opinion has been thought proved by the action of certain poisons 

 upon them. We know that they are poisoned like animals ; arsenic, mercury, 

 copper, lead, and tin, destroy them, and are found to be taken up by their ves- 

 sels. Carbonic acid, azote, nitric oxide, hydrogen, when applied to the roots, are 

 equally fatal. Opium, prussic acid, belladonna, nux vomica, menisperrais 

 coculus, hemlock, digitalis, alcohol, and oxalic acid, are no less so ; and, because 

 these destroy the life of animals without leaving chemical traces, and affect the 

 nervous system, Dr. Marcet, jun., whose experiments will be found in the 

 Annales de Chimie, June 1825, and are confirmed by many others, concludes 

 that they must destroy vegetables by acting on a nervous system in them. But, 

 although no trace be discoverable, this may be on account of their chemical 

 peculiarities, (and, in fact, prussic acid and alcohol have been found absorbed, 

 Annales de Chimie, Oct. 1814, and Dr. Cooke on Apoplexy,} and they, as well 

 as other poisons, affect the nervous system of animals only as one part of the 

 living body, arsenic, besides its general deleterious agency, causing particularly 

 gastritis, even if applied to a sore of the leg, digitalis exciting the kidneys 

 (indeed their action on vegetables might, on the other hand, be urged as a 

 proof of their general hostility to life) ; and the mineral ones, which often leave 

 chemical traces, also produce peculiar effects on the nervous system, and often 

 destroy life without being detected beyond the alimentary canal. 



