IIIFPURIC ACID IN THE URINE OF HERBIVORA. 843 
animated beings because we do not find them exhibited in 
the forms most familiar to us. I do not wish distinctly to 
claim for plants the actual possession of a voluntary or sentient 
faculty. But I do wish to point out that facts do not support 
us in asserting that a clear line of demarcation separates the 
animal from the vegetable kingdom ; the power of voluntary 
motion belonging to the one and not to the other. Taking 
all the facts we have described into consideration, the state¬ 
ment seems justified which has been made by one of our 
most experienced naturalists, Professor Wyville Thomson* : 
—“ There are certain phenomena, even among the higher 
plants, which it is very difficult to explain without admit¬ 
ting some low form of a general harmonising and regulat¬ 
ing function, comparable to such an obscure manifestation of 
reflex nervous action as we have in sponges and other animals 
in which a distinct nervous system is absent.^f —Popular 
Science Review. 
FORMATION OF HIPPURIC ACID IN THE URINE OF 
HERBIYORA. 
By Hofmeister. 
Sheep fed on clover-hay secreted as an average 5‘3 grams 
only of hippuric acid in twenty-four hours, but when fed on 
meadow-hay an almost constant quantity of thirty grams. 
The addition of benzoic acid to the clover-hay gave rise to 
an increase in hippuric acid of rather more than the 
calculated weight, showing that clover does not in itself 
prevent the formation. The distillate and watery extract 
obtained on distilling meadow-hay with w T ater, dried and 
given to sheep, produced no increase in hippuric acid, but 
the dried residue caused its secretion in almost the same pro¬ 
portion as the original hay. 
# “ Introductory Lecture to the Natural History Class at the University 
of Edinburgh,” May, 1871. See ‘Nature,’ vol. iv, p. 91. 
f Since writing the above, I have met with the following remarks by 
the Italian botanist. Prof. Delphino (‘ American Naturalist,’ July, 1871, 
p. 297):—“I must here, as always, declare myself ateleologist and avitalist. 
Now, teleology and vitalism, far from being vanquished by the Darwinian 
doctrine, find in it their most solid support. What do teleology and vitalism 
mean ? They mean that we believe that there is in all living things an 
innate, specific principle, intelligent, free, and teleological. This principle 
is the hidden cause of the variability of organised beings, as well as the 
wonderful harmonies which have been established between one being and 
another.” 
