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NEW-YORK PARMER AND 



matter, supplies it with new, and in a thousand instan- 

 ces suggests the mode of cure, or even effects the cure 

 itself, in cases of injury or disease. It is " the divini- 

 ty that stirs within us" of Stahl ; the vis medicatrix na- 

 turae of Hoffman and Cullen, and the physicians of our 

 own day. It is hence the strawberry travels from spot 

 to spot, and the cod or the cuckoo, with a wider range, 

 from shore to shore, or from climate to climate. 



In supplying the place of reason, it is perpetually as- 

 suming its semblance. Let us take an example or 

 two from both the vegetable and the animal world. 



In order that the seeds of plants should produce and 

 perfect their respective kinds, it is necessary that their 

 shoots should rise to the surface of the earth to enjoy 

 the benefit of light and air. Now in whatever direction 

 the eye of a seed, from which germination first radiates, 

 is placed, these shoots ascend equally to the surface, 

 either in curved or straight lines, according as such as- 

 cent may be most easily accomplished. Mr. John 

 Hunter sowed a quantity of peas and beans with their 

 eyes placed in different directions, in a tub, which he 

 afterwards inverted, so that the bottom was turned up- 

 permost, while the mould was prevented from falling 

 out by a fine net. And in order that the under surface 

 might possess a superior stimulus of light and heat to 

 the upper, he placed looking-glasses around the mouth 

 of the tub in such a way that a much stronger light was 

 reflected upon the inverted mould than that of the di- 

 rect rays of the sun ; while at the same time, he cover- 

 ed the bottom of the tub with straw and mats to prevent 

 the mould, in this direction, from being affected by so- 

 lar infljence. Yet the same instinctive la>v of ascent 

 still prevailed. After waiting a considerable length of 

 time, and perceiving that no shoots had protruded 

 through the lower surface of the mould, he examined 

 the contents of the tub, and found that they had all 

 equally pressed upwards and were making their way 

 through the long column of mould above them, towards 

 the reversed bottom of the vessel ; and that where the 

 eyes had been placed downwards, the young shoots had 

 turned round so as to take the same direction. As one 

 experiment leads on to another, he determined to try 

 the effect of placing other seeds of the same kinds in a 

 tub, to which a rotatory motion should be given, so 

 that every part of it might be equally and alternately 

 uppermost, and the seeds should have no advantage in 

 one direction over another. Here, as we often be- 

 hold in other cases, the instinctive principle of accom- 

 modation was baffled by a superior power, and the dif- 

 ferent shoots, instead of ever turning round, uniformly 

 adhered to a straight line, except where they met with 

 a pebble or any other resistance, when they made a 

 curve to avoid such obstruction, and then resumed a 

 straight line if the direction into which they were there- 

 by thrown, without ever endeavoring to return to the 

 original path. 



Among animals wo have various proofs of a like im- 

 pulse, and we have also proofs of its being occasionally 

 overpowered by a stronger cause. Thus, in cases of 

 eruptive fever, there is an obvious effort of the in- 

 stinctive principle to throw the morbific matter toward.* 

 the surface of the body, where it can do least mischief. 

 And where a deep-seated abscess has formed in the 

 immediate neighborhood of a cavity that cannot be 

 opened into without great danger, as that of the chest 

 or the stomach, the same instinctive principle of pre- 

 servation leads forward the action in a different direc- 

 tion, though, as in the experiment of the bean-seeds in 

 the inverted tub, with much greater labor and difficul- 

 ty ; and the abscess at length opens externally ; and 

 the remedial process of the formation of new living 

 matter which immediately succeeds, commences under 

 the same mysterious guidance. If, in the course of 

 this common tendency to the surface, an obstructive 

 cause be encountered, of superior force to the instinct- 

 ive principle itself, the latter, as in the experiment of 

 the beans exposed to the action of a rotatary motion, is 

 overpowered, and the result is doubtful, and often fatal. 



But these examples are general : let us advert to a 

 few of a more particular nature. All the different spe- 

 cies of birds, in constructing their nests, not only ad- 

 here to a peculiar plan, but, wherever they can obtain 

 them, to peculiar kinds of materials : but if these ma- 

 terials be not to be procured, the accommodating pow- 

 er of the instinctive principle, as in the cases just rela- 

 ted, directs tnem to others and suggests the best sub- 

 stitutes. Thus the red-breast uniformly prefers oak 

 leaves as a lining for her nest, wherever she can ac- 

 quire them ; but if these be not to be had, she supplies 

 the want by moss and hair. So where the bird is of 

 small size, and the eggs are naturally numerous, the 

 nest is always made proportionably warm, that the 

 nestlings may all equally partake of the vivifying heat. 

 Thus the wren, who lays from ten to eighteen eggs, 

 constructs her little edifice with the greatest care and 

 of the warmest materials ; while the plover and the 

 eagle, whose eggs are so few that the body may easily 

 cover them, build with little solicitude, and sometimes 

 content themselves with the naked cleft of a rock. 

 And thus too, in very cold winters in Lapland, the fond 

 waterfowl will occasionally strip the down off' its breast 

 to line its nest and protect its progeny. 



When a wasp, in attempting to transport a dead com- 

 panion from the nest, finds the load too heavy, he cuts 

 oil' its head, and carries it out in two portions. 



A strawberry offset planted in a patch of sand, will 

 send forth almost the whole of its runners in the direc- 

 tion in which the proper soil lies nearest, and tew, and 

 sometimes none, in the line in which it lies most re- 

 mote. 



" When a tree which requires much moisture (says 

 Mr. Knight,) has sprung up or been planted in a dry 



