The wildness of the
theories hitherto proposed by him, on his own discoveries, seems to
authorize us to consider his merit as that of a good optician only. You
know also, that Doctor Ingenhouse had discovered, as he supposed from
experiment, that vegetation might be promoted by occasioning streams of
the electrical fluid to pass through a plant, and that other physicians
had received and confirmed this theory. He now, however, retracts it,
and finds by more decisive experiments, that the electrical fluid can
neither forward nor retard vegetation. Uncorrected still of the rage of
drawing general conclusions from partial and equivocal observations, he
hazards the opinion that light promotes vegetation. I have heretofore
supposed from observation, that light affects the color of living
bodies, whether vegetable or animal; but that either the one or the
other receives nutriment from that fluid, must be permitted to be
doubted of, till better confirmed by observation. It is always better to
have no ideas, than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what
is wrong. In my mind, theories are more easily demolished than rebuilt.
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