190 Itcply to Mr. Main^s Question 



the roots have been concerned) of a bland watery fluid; 

 almost, if not entirely, free from taste, odour, or colour. 



This vine, then, has derived its support, and produced its 

 leaves and shoots, either, first, from the ascending fluid and 

 insipid sap ; or, secondly, from the still more fluid (that is, 

 gaseous) matters of the aerial medium surrounding its stem, 

 buds, and leaves; or, thirdly, by the' assimilation of sub- 

 stances (inherent or imbibed) by the mysterious agency of 

 the vital principle. The conclusion, therefore, seems inevi- 

 table, that all the vegetable solids are, without one single 

 exception, the product of fluids or gases, or of both ; attracted 

 and propelled through the appropriate organic processes of 

 the roots and leaves ; and that the compound fluids, " as they 

 are found in the roots, stem, leaves, flowers, or fruits," result 

 from the operation of an electro-chemical agency within the 

 cellular tissue, that is excited by the influence of solar light: 

 which light is the true, natural, electric, elementary fire ; the 

 primary exciting agent ; the chief actuator of all the pheno- 

 mena of secondary light ; of heat, vegetable growth, and, 

 perhaps, of the vital principle itself. 



The foregoing examples from the vegetable creation may 

 suffice. I could, however, multiply them to almost any 

 extent ; and, were I to apply to chemical facts, I might swell 

 the catalogue to such an immeasurable length, that you. Sir, 

 as Conductor, might justly exclaim, " What? will the line 

 extend to the crack of doom ? " I might adduce the de- 

 composition and re-formation of water, those of carbon, 

 carbonic acid, of sulphur and sulphuric acid ; the solution 

 of metals, and their diffusion through a measureless bulk of 

 water ; the conversion of mercury into vapour, and its dis- 

 persion into thin air ; the astonishing combustion of the 

 metal potassium, when in contact with water, and the conse- 

 quent solution of its alkaline product therein. These, and 

 hundreds of other chemical phenomena, might be cited, in 

 order to prove that solids may be, and are, daily and hourly, 

 formed out of fluids. What is more (and it is of vast con- 

 sequence to the argument), these chemical facts would afford 

 me a very powerful weapon, wherewith I could turn round 

 upon Mr. Main, and challenge him to deny, or even disbelieve, 

 that fluids are formed out of solids. Now, if there be any 

 force in analogy, it cannot, surely, be more unreasonable to 

 conclude that solids may be produced from fluids, than that 

 liquids, and even gases, may be formed and evolved from 

 solids ! 



I now come to Mr. Main's final question. " 11^' he asks, 

 " such a process of accretion be possible, I would wish to be 



