282 THE LIFE OF THE PLANT 



plant too long to the influence of anaesthetics, or it may 

 never revive, but will irrevocably perish. The same 

 thing happens with a man's organism. Unfortunately 

 sad cases of death happen fairly frequently as a result 

 of the imprudent use of chloroform. 



A nervous system has often been taken as the attribute 

 of an animal ; but, as a matter of fact, a nervous system 

 is not found in all animals. On the other hand, if the 

 existence is established of special tracks in plants (as is 

 suggested by some scientists) , by means of which irrita- 

 tion is communicated more quickly than by others, we 

 shall have to acknowledge that these are physiologically 

 somewhat analogous to nerves. Thus irritation in 

 mimosa, for instance, is transmitted by a special system 

 of tubes, by means of hydrostatic pressure. Such an 

 apparatus may best be compared with a pneumatic bell. 

 This case obviously does not present any real analogy to 

 the nervous system. 



Now a last question : Is the plant endowed with 

 consciousness ? We shall answer this question by raising 

 another : are all animals endowed with it ? If we do 

 not refuse it to the lower animals, why should we deny 

 it in the case of the plant ? And if we do refuse it to the 

 simplest animal, tell me, where, at what degree of 

 organic development, does this threshold of consciousness 

 lie ? Where is the limit beyond which an object 

 becomes a subject ? How can we escape this dilemma ? 

 Shall we not rather admit that consciousness is wide- 

 spread in Nature, that it smoulders in lower beings and 

 glows in a bright spark only in the mind of man ? Or, 

 had we not better stop at the point where the thread of 

 positive knowledge breaks off, at the border line beyond 

 which stretches the limitless province of speculation ever 

 captivating us by its elusive vastnesses, ever escaping 

 the limits of experimental inquiry ? ^ 



* Several botanists (Korjinsky and Famintzin in Russia) have recently 

 advocated the theory of the psychical activity of plants. I would only 



