Boyle. He filled several strong phials with horse 
beans, and then pouring water upon them, he corked 
the phials, and tied th^ui down. As the seeds im- 
bibed the water and increased in bulk, many of the 
phials were burst asunder. To make a nearer esti- 
mate of the expansive force of the swelling beans, 
he procured hollow cylinders of brass, of different 
lengths and diameters, to which wooden plugs were 
fitted, in such a manner as to move freely up and 
down in the cylinders as the seeds should swell. A 
cylinder of this kind, six inches in length and two in 
diameter, was filled with beans, which were then 
covered over with water ^ and as the seeds imbibed 
the water, they raised the plug, although a common 
half-hundred weight was laid upon it. When the 
cylinder was less than six inches deep, and was four 
inches broad, the beans, in swelling, would raise the 
plug, although loaded with a weight of above one 
hundred pounds*. 
202. We before remarked, that this swelling of 
seeds took place equally in water that contained air, 
and in that which had been previously deprived of 
its air by long boiling. Our observations on this 
point are confirmed by the experiments of M. T. de 
Saussure. He found that seeds of coffee, which had 
even lost the faculty of germinating, exhibited, ne- 
vertheless, a partial development of their radicle, not 
only in common, but in boiled water, and even in 
vinegar and saline solutions. This enlargement, 
however, is not to be considered as a true germina- 
f 
* Boylt's Works, by Shaw, vol. ii. p. 285. 2d edit. 
