238 
Spallanzani even found, that the seeds of mouldiness, which is a true 
vegetable, survive a heat innnitely greater than this. 
The fruit-bearing trees seem as if destined by Nature to invite to a ban¬ 
quet * at the same time, as being most useful to mankind, and animals, and 
birds, the seeds thereof are dispersed in every direction. Thus some pos¬ 
sess in the centre the seed safely lodged in a stone, as it is called, or hard 
shell, as the cherry and peach ; and, to excite terror, those are often consi¬ 
derably pointed at both ends, as the plum ; and the apple has a core of a 
ligneous nature around the pips, and the pear has its seeds defended really 
by an osseous deposit. 
Physiologists have discovered, that the arillus, or husk, equally as the 
shell of seeds, is not acted on by the gastric fluid; f and hence, when 
animals in their voraciousness, without mastication, swallow some of these, 
they pass the intestinal tube uninjured. Hence, if a field be manured by 
recent dung, not completely fermented, various plants injurious to the farmer 
will spring up, covering the field. Hence the explanation of a vulgar error, 
that wheat, barley, and rye, are converted into oats, although such changes 
are contrary to all common sense; yet seeing that oats usually spring up 
where these are sown, there is a more likely solution of this phenomenon, 
* Duhamel even thinks, that the pulpy medullary part of the fruit is of no service to the con¬ 
tained seeds. He thus expresses himself: “ A 1’egard du pepin de la poire, il tient en quelque ma¬ 
nic re le milieu entre les vivipares et ovipares ; car il s’incube dans le lieu oii il a ete forme; c’est-a- 
dire, dans Finterieur de la poire. Il y a neanmoins lieu de croire que son amande se forme sans 
presque tirer aucun secour de la poire, si ce n’est par les liqueurs qui etoient contenues dans le 
pepin, avant que Famande commenpat a se former; car lorsque Famande commence a paroitre, les 
secretions semblent intercepted par l’endurcissement des glandes. De meme, dans les fruits a noyau, 
Famande ne se forme que quand la boite ligneuse est considerablement endurcie; et dans ces sones 
de fruits le vaisseau umbilical est alors presque desseche.” Physique des Arbres. 
q “ The husk of the seeds of plants appears to be indigestible in its natural state; whether this 
arises,” says the celebrated John Hunter, “ from the nature of the husk itself, or from its compact¬ 
ness, I am not certain, but am inclined to suppose the last, as we find the cocoa, which is only 
a husk, to be digestible when ground to a powder, and well boiled. We know, likewise, that 
cuticle, horn, and bone, although animal substances, are not affected by our gastric juice, but when 
reduced to a jelly, that jelly is readily acted upon in the stomach; we must therefore suppose, that 
a certain natural degree of solidity in animal and vegetable substances, render them indigestible. 
J his compactness, continues Hunter, seems to be intended to preserve, whilst under ground, the 
farinaceous parts of seeds, in which the embryo is placed, the husk having hence its power of re¬ 
sisting putrefaction.” Hunter on the Animal (Economy. 
Of 25 ripe grapes which Spallanzani swallowed by way of experiment, 18 were voided 
entire , and of the other 7, the skins only appeared. He made the same experiment with cherries 
and currants, as well ripe as unripe, and by far the greater number were voided entire. Yide our 
Philosophy of Medicine, Vol. III. p. 98 . 
