i68 
Plant  Structures. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
*-     March,  1918. 
makes  them  a  part  of  vegetation?  Does  a  dead  seed  sprout,  in  the 
richest  of  soil?  And  in  the  life  of  the  plant  are  not  the  assimilated 
earth  structures  each  a  part  of  the  plant,  no  longer  inorganic,  but 
all  organic  ?  "  So,  may  I  not  ask,  does  not  even  Mother  Earth  need 
the  touch  of  the  Great  Creator,  before  whom  all  men  must  bow, 
before  whom  all  that  is,  is  comprehensible,  though  to  the  feebleness 
of  the  human  mind,  it  remains  recondite  beyond  expression? 
Give  to  the  waters  of  the  ocean  credit  for  the  vapor  that  spreads 
the  earth  about,  and,  dropping  from  the  Clouds  as  rain,  waters  the 
earth,  making  possible  the  life  of  the  growing  plant.  And  yet,  the 
vapor  of  the  water  of  the  ocean,  that  makes  the  rain,  could  not 
nourish  the  growing  plant  were  the  life  spark  absent,  the  vital  touch 
that  is  not  water  and  is  not  earth,  but  comes  from  out  the  gift  of  the 
great  I  Am. 
Give  to  the  sunbeam  credit  for  all  that  comes  in  its  ray  of  wealth. 
Mantling  the  earth,  it  liquefies  ice  and  melts  snow,  penetrates  the 
ground  and  inspires  the  growing  bud  of  the  seed,  that,  under  its 
touch,  springs  into  life  and  activity.  It  sucks  from  the  water  of 
the  ocean  the  moisture  necessary  to  the  plant's  creation  and  exist- 
ence. Together,  water,  light  and  heat  penetrate  the  earth  where 
creeps  the  root,  where  lie  the  salts  and  minerals  needed  in  the  life 
of  the  coming  plant.  Grasping,  in  a  manner  incomprehensible  to 
us,  the  invisible  gases  of  the  air  and  those  locked  in  the  water  that 
nourishes  the  roots,  they  form  the  food  needed  by  the  growing 
plant. 
Give  credit  to  one  and  all  of  these,  but  after  all  this  is  done,  do 
not  fail  to  accept  that  behind  it  all,  beyond  it  all,  outside  it  all,  im- 
measurably greater  than  it  all,  is  the  Creator  of  all,  who  makes  pos- 
sible all  that  lies  in  life's  economy. 
Let  us  now  apply  the  foregoing  to  the  thought  in  mind  when 
began  this  dissertation.  As  a  text,  the  writer  had  before  him  a 
sentence  expressed  by  the  talented  Dr.  Martin  I.  Fischer,  than 
whom  no  man  to  the  writer  known,  in  pharmacological  research  con- 
cerning life  tissues  and  structures,  is  more  competent.  He  speaks 
by  authority,  from  the  scientific  side  of  life.  His  thought  chimes 
into  that  which  came  to  this  writer  from  decades  of  empirical 
struggles  in  the  study  of  vegetable  remedial  agents.  Close  together 
do  we  find  our  final  thought,  as  expressed  by  myself  in  the  foregoing 
pages,  and  as  voiced  so  beautifully  by  Dr.  Fischer  in  a  statement  of 
fact  presented  in  an  address  before  the  Cincinnati  branch  of  the 
