96 Instinct and Reason. [February, 
It may be further noticed that while the movements described are 
each different and peculiar to a single genus of plants, they are 
unlike those of the well-known balsam, and those of the witch- 
hazel as given by Mr. Meehan a few years since. 
:0; 
INSTINCT AND REASON. 
BY F. C. CLARK, M.D. 
F the great array of startling facts, presented in the works of 
Mr. Darwin, be not wholly convincing, they at least clearly dem- 
onstrate a somewhat closer connection of man with lower organi- 
zations than has hitherto been acknowledged. Since the inven- 
tion of the microscope and its application to the natural sciences, 
the study of natural phenomena has opened a field of inquiry 
never before dreamed of by the most imaginative theorist. Myr- , 
iads of infinitesimal forms of life, which formerly escaped detec- — 
tion, have thus been revealed, and though many a one lacks that 
complexity of organization which usually attracts our notice, yet 
even in their simplicity they present a problem as intricate and 
perplexing as the most highly organized being. These minute 
organisms often seem but mere centers of life (points of attraction), 
around which cluster other existences still more minute and but 
_ just perceptible to the highest powers of the microscope. Organi- 
zation. appears, many times, hardly more than nominal. Even 
to-day their nature defies solution, so as to render it impossible 
to assign them any satisfactory place in the scale of being; and 
after the new discoveries daily added, the naturalist is at a loss to 
find the dividing line between the various forms of life expressed 
by the old names of “ animal” and “ vegetable.” 
The division of the living world into the “ vegetable ” and “ ani- 
mal” is at best but arbitrary. It is not enough to take well 
characterized types of each division and compare them with each 
other. Such differences would be self evident. But, instead, it a 
is needful to give such a definition of each division as will cover 
every variety, however diverse, which is included in that division 
to which the definition has been given. Thus, much confusion — 
in classification is avoided; though, unfortunately for us, the — 
problem remains unsolved; for the new facts daily brought to — 
ae a: render necessary continual oei in Siasnifioatiofi; and A 
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