198 LECTURE V. 



the minute absorbing vessels which must, 

 nevertheless, exist in these roots, conse- 

 quently, I conclude that he exhibited this 

 preparation merely as an argument ; as if 

 he had said, you must grant me that there 

 are vessels to imbibe the juices of the earth 

 which afterwards become the sap or nutri- 

 tive fluid of the plant ; and I am convinced 

 there are similar vessels to perform a simi- 

 lar function in all parts of animal bodies. 

 After having been teased and perplexed by 

 sceptics, he could only reply from analogy, 

 and therefore, I suppose he put up this 

 root, which though it shews little to the 

 eye of sense, he thought might demon- 

 strate much to the eye of reason. 



Mr. Hunter, however, has exhibited in 

 this department of his Museum, many spe- 

 cimens of what may be considered as the 

 trunks of these undemonstrably minute 

 vessels. He also injected them in whales, 

 to show their analogy to those found in 

 other mammalia, and that they were very 

 minute vessels, even in such monstrous 

 animals. 



