MADRAS JOURNAL 



OF • 



LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 



NO. 4 -NEW SERIES. 



July — September, 1857. 



VII. On the 'Relationship existing between the Animal and 

 Plant. By George Bidie, m. b. } Assistant Surgeon, Ma- 

 dras. 



Between the animal and plant of the higher orders there is such 

 an apparent difference of conformation, such a contrariety of habits, 

 that the mere casual observer will fail to recognise those secret 

 links, by which nature binds all her works into one harmonious 

 whole. In whatever direction however the contemplations of the 

 naturalist tend, from race to race or from kingdom to kingdom, he 

 discovers no rude gaps but a beautiful unison, for nihil per saltum 

 is one of the great laws of creation. If we descend the scale of na- 

 ture, reaching the extreme boundaries, the lowest forms, of the ani- 

 mal and vegetable kingdoms, we find members of these great divi- 

 sions approximating so closely, that it becomes a matter of difficul- 

 ty to draw any line of demarcation. The limits here are also hazy, 

 because so far beyond the ken of unaided vision, and although the 

 microscope has unveiled nature's secrets, disclosing a new world 

 grand in the plenitude of its minutise, still its scientific eye is finite 

 failing at times to decide which is the animal, and which the plant. 

 It has been said that " stones grow, vegetables grow and live, and 

 * animals grow, live and feel," but this axiom is not sufficiently ex- 

 tensive in the terms of its definition. Thus plants in some instan- 

 ces seem capable of distinguishing between light and darkness, for 



