Hufeland's Art of prolonging life / edited by Erasmus Wilson.

  • Hufeland, Christoph Wilhelm, 1762-1836.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hufeland's Art of prolonging life / edited by Erasmus Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    law: the more intensive life a plant has, the stronger» and speedier is its internal consumption, the sooner it; decays, and the shorter is its duration: on the other hand,, the more capacity a plant has, either internally or exter- • nally, to regenerate itself, the longer it will preserve its ■ existence. I shall now proceed to treat, in the first place, on the: law of consumption. Plants in general have a very weak; intensive life, which consists only in the functions of: growth, propagation, and receiving nourishment. They; are subject to no arbitrary changing of place, no regular' circulation, no muscular or nervous motion. The functionj of generation is, beyond dispute, the highest degree of their; internal consumption, the utmost stretch of their intensive life. But how speedily is it followed by decomposition; and annihilation! Nature appears here to make, as it were, the greatest exertion of her plastic power, and to show the ne plus ultra of the highest finishing and of bringing’ to perfection. What tenderness and delicacy in the structure of the flower ; what elegance and splendour of colours astonish: us often in the most inconsiderable plant, to which we never could have ascribed such expansion. These are, as it were, the dress of ceremony, with which the plant celebrates its greatest festival, but with which it also often exhausts; its whole stock of vital power, either for ever, or at least fori a long time. All plants, without exception, lose, immediately after this catastrophe, the vigour of vegetation; and begin to be sta- tionary, which is the commencement of their dissolution. In all annual plants complete death follows; among the larger' plants and trees, a temporal death at least, or a torpor of half a year, until, by the great strength of their regenerating power, they are again put in a condition to shoot forth new; leaves and flowers. On the same principles it may be explained, how all plants which acquire early the power of generation die also soonest; and it is an invariable law for the duration of life in the