steuaut's planter's guide. 



£75 



this otherwise ; otherwise our credence would be far 

 from philosophic. Freezing cold alFects many vege- 

 tables as well as some of the lower animals, only by 

 mechanical injury, in rending the vessels by means 

 of the expansion of the contained fluid. Now, if 

 these vessels are not quite full of fluid, if the fluid 

 be of such a nature as not to congeal into greater 

 size, or if the body be small, and the vessels elastic, 

 to yield to expansion without fracture — the vege- 

 table or animal will often resume vitality, on being 

 thawed from thorough congelation. We have ren- 

 dered potatoes, turnips, and fruits, frost-proof, at 

 least unless the frost was intense, by a slight desicca- 

 tion caused by exposing them a short time to the 

 air after being taken from the ground or tree In 

 the cases where fishes and reptiles have been found 



* Our experiments have not yet been carried so far, as to de- 

 termine if, by any arrangement of drying or exposure, they may 

 be seasoned to sustain intense frost, which may affect them 

 differently from moderate frost, either by causing complete con- 

 gelation of all their structure (moderate freezing appearing only 

 to congeal their fluids, but not entirely the containing vessel, at 

 least only partly congealing the mass), or by killing the vital 

 principle itself through nervous affection. The potatoes became 

 green from the exposure to the light, and we rather think ac- 

 quired greater hardihood of constitution, or greater vitality or ex- 

 citability by the exposure, thence greater power to resist the cold, 

 independent of the disposition they acquired by desiccation to en- 

 dure it. 



