Astronomy and General Physics Considered with Reference to Natural Theology

by William Whewell

In the same manner in which Linnæus proposed a Calendar of Flora, he also proposed a Dial of Flora, or Flower-Clock; and this was to consist, as will readily be supposed, of plants, which mark certain hours of the day, by opening and shutting their flowers. Thus the day-lily (hemerocallis fulva) opens at five in the morning; the leontodon taraxacum, or common dandelion, at five or six; the hieracium latifolium (hawkweed), at seven; the hieracium pilosella, at eight; the calendula arvensis, or marigold, at nine; the mesembryanthemum neapolitanum, at ten or eleven; and the closing of these and other flowers in the latter part of the day offers a similar system of hour marks.

Some of these plants are thus expanded in consequence of the stimulating action of the light and heat of the day, as appears by their changing their time, when these influences are changed; but others appear to be constant to the same hours, and independent of the impulse of such external circumstances. Other flowers by their opening and shutting prognosticate the weather. Plants of the latter kind are called by Linnæus meteoric flowers, as being regulated by atmospheric causes: those which change their hour of opening and shutting with the length of the day, he terms tropical; and the hours which they measure are, he observes, like Turkish hours, of varying length at different seasons. But there are other plants which he terms equinoctial; their vegetable days, like the days of the equator, being always of equal length; and these open, and generally close, at a fixed and positive hour of the day. Such plants clearly prove that the periodical character, and the period of the motions above described, do not depend altogether on external circumstances.

Some curious experiments on this subject were made by Decandolle. He kept certain plants in two cellars, one warmed by a stove and dark, the other lighted by lamps. On some of the plants the artificial light appeared to have no influence, (convolvulus arvensis, convolvulus cneorum, silene fruticosa) and they still followed the clock hours in their opening and closing. The night-blowing plants appeared somewhat disturbed, both by perpetual light and perpetual darkness. In either condition they accelerated their going so much, that in three days they had gained half a day, and thus exchanged night for day as their time of opening. Other flowers went slower in the artificial light (convolvulus purpureus.) In like manner those plants which fold and unfold their leaves were variously affected by this mode of treatment. The oxalis stricta and oxalis incarnata kept their habits, without regarding either artificial light or heat. The mimosa leucocephala folded and unfolded at the usual times, whether in light or in darkness, but the folding up was not so complete as in the open air. The mimosa pudica (sensitive plant,) kept in darkness during the day time, and illuminated during the night, had in three days accommodated herself to the artificial state, opening in the evening, and closing in the morning; restored to the open air, she recovered her usual habits.

Tropical plants in general, as is remarked by our gardeners, suffer from the length of our summer daylight; and it has been found necessary to shade them during a certain part of the day.

It is clear from these facts, that there is a diurnal period belonging to the constitution of vegetables; though the succession of functions depends in part on external stimulants, as light and heat, their periodical character is a result of the structure of the plant; and this structure is such, that the length of the period, under the common influences to which plants are exposed, coincides with the astronomical day. The power of accommodation which vegetables possess in this respect, is far from being such as either to leave the existence of this periodical constitution doubtful, or to entitle us to suppose that the day might be considerably lengthened or shortened without injury to the vegetable kingdom.

Here then we have an adaptation between the structure of plants, and the periodical order of light and darkness which arises from the earth’s rotation; and the arbitrary quantity, the length of the cycle of the physiological and of the astronomical fact, is the same. Can this have occurred any otherwise than by an intentional adjustment?

Any supposition that the astronomical cycle has occasioned the physiological one, that the structure of plants has been brought to be what it is by the action of external causes, or that such plants as could not accommodate themselves to the existing day have perished, would be not only an arbitrary and baseless assumption, but moreover useless for the purposes of explanation which it professes, as we have noticed of a similar supposition with respect to the annual cycle. How came plants to have periodicity at all in those functions which have a relation to light and darkness? This part of their constitution was suited to organized things which were to flourish on the earth, and it is accordingly bestowed on them; it was necessary for this end that the period should be of a certain length; it is of that length and no other. Surely this looks like intentional provision.

Animals also have a period in their functions and habits; as in the habits of waking, sleeping, eating, &c. and their well-being appears to depend on the coincidence of this period with the length of the natural day. We see that in the day, as it now is, all animals find seasons for taking food and repose, which agree perfectly with their health and comfort. Some animals feed during the day, as nearly all the ruminating animals and land birds; others feed only in the twilight, as bats and owls, and are called crepuscular; while many beasts of prey, aquatic birds, and others, take their food during the night. Those animals which are nocturnal feeders are diurnal sleepers, while those which are crepuscular, sleep partly in the night and partly in the day; but in all, the complete period of these functions is twenty-four hours. Man, in like manner, in all nations and ages, takes his principal rest once in twenty-four hours; and the regularity of this practice seems most suitable to his health, though the duration of the time allotted to repose is extremely different in different cases. So far as we can judge, this period is of a length beneficial to the human frame, independently of the effect of external agents. In the voyages recently made into high northern latitudes, where the sun did not rise for three months, the crews of the ships were made to adhere, with the utmost punctuality, to the habit of retiring to rest at nine, and rising a quarter before six; and they enjoyed, under circumstances apparently the most trying, a state of salubrity quite remarkable. This shows, that according to the common constitution of such men, the cycle of twenty-four hours is very commodious, though not imposed on them by external circumstances.

The hours of food and repose are capable of such wide modifications in animals, and above all in man, by the influence of external stimulants and internal emotions, that it is not easy to distinguish what portion of the tendency to such alternations depends on original constitution. Yet no one can doubt that the inclination to food and sleep is periodical, or can maintain, with any plausibility, that the period may be lengthened or shortened without limit. We may be tolerably certain that a constantly recurring period of forty-eight hours would be too long for one day of employment and one period of sleep, with our present faculties; and all, whose bodies and minds are tolerably active, will probably agree that, independently of habit, a perpetual alternation of eight hours up and four in bed would employ the human powers less advantageously and agreeably than an alternation of sixteen and eight. A creature which could employ the full energies of his body and mind uninterruptedly for nine months, and then take a single sleep of three months, would not be a man.

When, therefore, we have subtracted from the daily cycle of the employments of men and animals, that which is to be set down to the account of habits acquired, and that which is occasioned by extraneous causes, there still remains a periodical character; and a period of a certain length, which coincides with, or at any rate easily accommodates itself to, the duration of the earth’s revolution. The physiological analysis of this part of our constitution is not necessary for our purpose. The succession of exertion and repose in the muscular system, of excited and dormant sensibility in the nervous, appear to be fundamentally connected with the muscular and nervous powers, whatever the nature of these may be. The necessity of these alternations is one of the measures of the intensity of those vital energies; and it would seem that we cannot, without assuming the human powers to be altered, suppose the intervals of tranquillity which they require to be much changed. This view agrees with the opinion of some of the most eminent physiologists. Thus Cabanis[4] notices the periodical and isochronous character of the desire of sleep, as well as of other appetites. He states also that sleep is more easy and more salutary, in proportion as we go to rest and rise every day at the same hours; and observes that this periodicity seems to have a reference to the motions of the solar system.