[ 90 



Bath water being now, by the moft judici- 

 ous, attributed to a like caufe. And if that 

 point is gained, fuch a kind of free-thinker 

 may* poffibly require confent, that whatever 

 will raife a heat in a plant will caufe it to 

 vegetate : Whence further he may poffibly 

 urge, that — from whatever caufe the afcent 

 of fuch fluids, or when afcended, to what- 

 ever occafional caufe again a defluxion down* 

 ward is owing, a foundation thereby may 

 be laid for the origin of lateral germens. 



For my own part, I ftand in no need of 

 borrowing any fupport from the like meta- 

 phyfical thoughts, it being I hope to be rea- 

 fonably concluded from many of the caufes 

 before mentioned alone 5 that the fap in the 

 body of an Oak, from the common elaftici- 

 ty of the air, which is not long permanent 

 therein, attains accidentally a diffuiive moti- 

 on every way, viz. of the propulfion of the 

 roots into the hard earth — again not only of 

 it's natural afcent upward, but alfo of an 

 occafional dcprcffure, as in the cafe of the 

 Je famine — and a like from a Spherical mo- 

 tion of an injurious lateral protrufion of ger- 

 mens, v/hen either a defluxion downward, 

 or an evolution upward is prevented by any 



obflrudi- 



