CHAPTER III.

The Mass of the Earth.

We shall now consider the adaptation which may, as we conceive, be traced in the amount of some of the quantities which determine the course of events in the organic world; and especially in the amount of the forces which are in action. The life of vegetables and animals implies a constant motion of their fluid parts, and this motion must be produced by forces which urge or draw the particles of the fluids. The positions of the parts of vegetables are also the result of the flexibility and elasticity of their substance; the voluntary motions of animals are produced by the tension of the muscles. But in all those cases, the effect really produced depends upon the force of gravity also; and in order that the motions and positions may be such as answer their purpose, the forces which produce them must have a due proportion to the force of gravity. In human works, if, for instance, we have a fluid to raise, or a weight to move, some calculation is requisite, in order to determine the power which we must use, relatively to the work which is to be done we have a mechanical problem to solve, in order that we may adjust the one to the other. And the

same adjustment, the same result of a comparison of quantities, manifests itself in the relation which the forces of the organic world bear to the force of gravity.

The force of gravity might, so far as we can judge, have been different from what it now is. It depends upon the mass of the earth; and this mass is one of the elements of the solar system, which is not determined by any cosmical necessity of which we are aware. The masses of the several planets are very different, and do not appear to follow any determinate rule, except that upon the whole those nearer to the sun appear to be smaller, and those nearer the outskirts of the system to be larger. We cannot see anything which would have prevented either the size or the density of the earth from being different, to a very great extent, from what they are.

Now, it will be very obvious that if the intensity of gravity were to be much increased, or much diminished, if every object were to become twice as heavy or only half as heavy as it now is, all the forces, both of involuntary and voluntary motion which produce the present orderly and suitable results by being properly proportioned to the resistance which they experience, would be thrown off their balance; they would produce motions too quick or too slow, wrong positions, jerks and stops, instead of steady, well conducted movements. The universe would be like a ma

chine ill regulated; every thing would go wrong; repeated collisions and a rapid disorganization must be the consequence. We will, however, attempt to illustrate one or two of the cases in which this would take place, by pointing out forces which act in the organic world, and which are adjusted to the force of gravity.

1. The first instance we shall take, is the force manifested by the ascent of the sap in vegetables. It appears, by a multitude of indisputable experiments, (among the rest, those of Hales, Mirbel, and Dutrochet,) that all plants imbibe moisture by their roots, and pump it up, by some internal force, into every part of their frame, distributing it into every leaf. It will easily be conceived that this operation must require a very considerable mechanical force; for the fluid must be sustained as if it were a single column reaching to the top of the tree. The division into minute parts and distribution through small vessels does not at all diminish the total force requisite to raise it. If, for instance, the tree be thirty-three feet high, the pressure must be fifteen pounds upon every square inch in the section of the vessels of the bottom, in order merely to support the sap. And it is not only supported, but propelled upwards with great force, so as to supply the constant evaporation of the leaves. The pumping power of the tree must, therefore, be very considerable.

That this power is great, has been confirmed by various curious experiments, especially by those of Hales. He measured the force with which the stems and branches of trees draw the fluid from below, and push it upwards. He found, for instance, that a vine in the bleeding season could push up its sap in a glass tube to the height of twenty-one feet above the stump of an amputated branch.

The force which produces this effect is part of the economy of the vegetable world; and it is clear that the due operation of the force depends upon its being rightly proportioned to the force of gravity. The weight of the fluid must be counterbalanced, and an access of force must exist to produce the motion upwards. In the common course of vegetable life, the rate of ascent of the sap is regulated, on the one hand, by the upward pressure of the vegetable power, and on the other, by the amount of the gravity of the fluid, along with the other resistances, which are to be overcome. If, therefore, we suppose gravity to increase, the rapidity of this vegetable circulation will diminish, and the rate at which this function proceeds, will not correspond either to the course of the seasons, or the other physiological processes with which this has to co-operate. We might easily conceive such an increase of gravity as would stop the vital movements of the plant in a very short

time. In like manner, a diminution of the gravity of the vegetable juices would accelerate the rising of the sap, and would, probably, hurry and overload the leaves and other organs, so as to interfere with their due operation. Some injurious change, at least, would take place.

Here, then, we have the forces of the minutest parts of vegetables adjusted to the magnitude of the whole mass of the earth on which they exist. There is no apparent connection between the quantity of matter of the earth, and the force of imbibition of the roots of a vine, or the force of propulsion of the vessels of its branches. Yet, these things have such a proportion as the wellbeing of the vine requires. How is this to be accounted for, but by supposing that the circumstances under which the vine was to grow, were attended to in devising its structure?

We have not here pretended to decide whether this force of propulsion of vegetables is mechanical or not, because the argument is the same for our purpose on either supposition. Some very curious experiments have recently been made, (by M. Dutrochet) which are supposed to show that the force is mechanical; that when two different fluids are separated by a thin membrane, a force which M. Dutrochet calls endosmose urges one fluid through the membrane: and that the roots of plants are provided with small vesicles which act the part of such a membrane. M.