Observations on Manures . £$fc. 
33i 
class of phenomena relating to their search of food, and the propa- 
gation of their species seems to put this beyond reasonable doubt. 
To which may be added the habits and customs of the parasite 
plants. 
Animals though perfect in all their parts, may be -stinted in their 
growth by too small a quantity of food, and by other means ; and 
this diminution will affect the s ; zc of their offspring. The 
case is precisely the same with plants. By plenty of food and fa- 
vourable situations, animals may be encreased in size. So may 
vegetables. By breeding from selected couples of a large size, 
the size of the animal offspring is encreased. Hereon was found- 
ed the successful practice of the greatest cattle breeder in England, 
Mr. Bake well of Ditchley ; and the same set of experiments has 
been repeated with equal success on plants by Mr. Cooper of New 
Jersey. Mr. Bakewell encreased the flesh on particular bones ot 
his cattle, and propagated this propensity. Mr. Cooper has in like 
manner propagated not merely encrease of size, but encrease of 
size in particular parts of the plant, and propensities to earlier ve- 
getation. 
In animals, appetite may be provoked, and digestion assisted, by 
the artificial stimuli, of what physicians call Condiments , salt, pep- 
per, wine, acids, bitters, See. Such also is the property of vege- 
tables. Their hands, mouth, and stomach, are in the soil ; and by 
the application of artificial stimuli, such as lime, common salt, al- 
kalies, plaister of Paris, See. their roots may be excited to want, to 
seek, to take in, and to digest more nutriment than they would 
otherwise use. 
Animals may be surfeited with too much nourishment. So a 
plant will die if set in a mere dung-heap. Animals may be poi- 
soned. So may plants. Every metallic combination for instance, 
except oxygenated and carbonated iron, and calx of manganese (and 
lead ?) in small quantities, being poisons to the vegetable. 
By the artificial stimuli of condiments, animals may be excited 
too much, and indirect debility will ensue. So is it with plants. In 
like manner, excess of these artificial stimuli will take away their 
beneficial effects, as half a pint of wine may assist, when a bottle 
will injure digestion. Thus, from the experiments of Sir John 
Pringle, and Dr. Watson, (Bishop of LandafF) it appears that a 
small quantity of common salt is a septic to the animal fibre, and 
a manure to vegetables, while a large quantity, is the domestic an- 
tiseptic ©f rookery, and destroys vegetation altogether. So in the 
