Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 303, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1913 — CAN PUT PLANTS TO SLEEP [ARTICLE]

CAN PUT PLANTS TO SLEEP

French Scientist Claims That They Feel Pain—Makes Many Experiments.

Paris. —Can flowers feel pain? This is a question to which French physiologists are giving much attention at the present time. M. L. Chassalgne believes that they can, and do. His opinion is based on Interesting experiments. Taking a mimosa plant, he exposed it to the action of heat. The leaves writbed as if in pain. A simple mechanical effect, say the skeptics; a proof of (sensibility, says M. Chassalgne, sttnee it does not take place if the mimosa tie anesthetized. If the vase containing the mimosa is placed in a glass globe with a piece of cotton impregnated with cloroform or any other volatile anesthetic for half an hour, the foliage becomes wilted and the plant has all the appearances of being in a deep sleep. If it be now subjected to the action of heat It remains unaffected. M. Chassalgne has repeated the same experiments with many different kinds of plants, but always with the same resulL “It is maintained,” he says, “that plants do not suffer because they have no nerves. "Many physiologists hold that but the extensifin of protoand adapted to fulfill the required function. Hence the protoplasm of plants can perfectly well

act as a rudimentary nervous sys tem.”