ON SYMPATHY AND FASCINATION- 



2^ 



this fluid are perfectly or very nearly iii- contact, but between all particles 

 of it, at all distances, whatever obstacles may lie between them.* 



Chemical science lays open to us a wonderful field of similar affections 

 and affinities. Within the range of its peculiar regions, we behold almost 

 every substance evincing a determinate series both of inclinations and of 

 antipathies, strongly attracted by one kiiid of material, indifferent towards 

 a second, and powerfully avoiding a third. From these extraordinary en- 

 dowments proceeds unquestionably the union or separation of different 

 bodies, according to the nature of the endowments that are called into ac- 

 tion ; but their influence, in perhaps every case, commences before such 

 bodies are in a state of contact, and in many cases while they are at a con- 

 siderable distance from each other. 



From lifeless and inorganic matter these peculiar and mysterious affec- 

 tions ascend to. vegetable life, and display to us germs, molecules, and fibrils, 

 uniting not at random with germs, molecules, and fibrils, but each selecting 

 the other, and occasionally attracting them from remote situations, the 

 female male, and the male female rudiments ; and this with the nicest dis- 

 crimination of their various powers of crassitude or tenuity, and conse- 

 quently of reciprocal adaptation, without which no vital entity would ensue. 

 Perhaps one of the most extraordinary instances of this kind we are ac- 

 quainted with exists in the valisneria spiralis^ an aquatic and dioecous plant, 

 or one belonging to that class in which the male and the female are in- 

 stinct individuals. The male has a long spir^ stem by which its flower is 

 enabled at all times to adapt itself to the surface of the water, from the bot- 

 tom of which the plant shoots forth, and to float in the middle of tide-streams 

 of almost every variation of ascent. The stem of the female is straight, and 

 much shorter ; and is hence only found in shallow waters, or on shores, 

 where the tide exerts but little influence. Thus differently formed and 

 remotely situated, how is that union to take place, without which there 

 could be no incremept, and the valisneria would be blotted out of the book 

 of vegetable life. The whole process is wonderful ; a part of it is obvious, 

 but the rest is concealed. As soon as the male flower is become perfected, 

 .the spiral stem dries away, and the flower separates itself from it, and sails 

 gallantly over the water in pursuit of the female, for the most part driven, 

 indeed, by a current of the wind or of the stream ; yet as soon as it arrives 

 within a certain range of the female, it obeys a new influence, and is at- 

 tracted towards it in various instances even in opposition to wind and tide, 

 the powers that have hitherto directed it. What, now, is this stupendous 

 influence that thus operates at a distance, and gives to the male flower a new 

 direction ? It may possibly be a peculiar kind of odour or aroma ; and per- 

 haps this is the most philosophical way of accounting for the fact ; bift 

 however philosophical, it is altogether hypothetical, for we are incapable 

 of ascertaining, and know notbmg of the existence of any such exhalation ; 

 and could we detect it, we should be still totally ignorant of its mode of 

 operation. 



The same curious phasnomena seem not unfrequently to take place in the 

 animal system : for here also we can truly affirm that bodies appear to act 

 where they are not, and v/here we can trace no communicating medium. 

 A small laceration on one of the fingers, sometimes in our own country, but 

 far more frequently in warmer climates, will produce, if unattended to, the 

 disease of a locked jaw; and an inflammation or abscess of the liver, a severe 



* Young's Lecturefe', vol. i. p. 659, 



