a partisan of vital force as Treviranus had to deal with endosmose as an established principle. Moreover Dutrochet's copious investigations presented such an abundance of interesting observations, delicate combinations, and suggestive considerations, that the study of them is still instructive and indeed indispensable to any one who is occupied with such researches. Comparison of his papers in the 'Mémoires' of 1837 with what was before known on the mechanical laws of the movements of plants leaves us in no doubt that energetic mental effort had taken the place of the old complacent absence of thought.
Still no single movement had as yet been fully explained on mechanical principles; but by the year 1840 clearer views had been attained on the whole subject; the co-operation of external agencies was in substance recognised, and the different forms of movement were better distinguished, though much still remained to be done in this direction; and as regards the mechanical changes in the tissue of the parts capable of movement, a factor had been given in endosmose which must be taken into account, though it might be necessary to seek a different mode of applying it.
4. Before proceeding to give some account of the theoretical efforts that were made in this subject between 1840 and 1860, it should be mentioned that new cases of movement in plants had been discovered. Dutrochet observed that the stem in the embryo of Viscum is negatively heliotropic, and had carefully studied its behaviour; he opposed the old notion that the geotropic downward curvature is peculiar to main roots, and that that is the reason why they are in 'polar' opposition to the stem, by pointing to the shoots of the rhizomes of Sagittaria, Sparganium, Typha, and other plants, which at least when young curve downwards with some force; and on contending Knight's experiment with a rotating wheel he found that the leaves also exhibit a peculiar geotropism. These observations and some new examples of periodical movement
