This is just what our stomachs do to the food we eat.
~25.~ A few years ago Mr.Darwin thought that he would see what effect alcohol would have upon the digestion of a plant.

So he put a fly-catching plant in a jar with some alcohol for just five minutes.

The alcohol did not touch the plant, because the jar was only wet with the alcohol on the inside.

When he took the plant out, he found that it could not catch flies, and that its digestion was spoiled so that it could not even digest very tender bits of meat which were placed on its leaves.

The plant was drunk.
~26.~ Mr.Darwin tried a great many experiments with various poisons, and found that the plants were affected in much the same way by ether and chloroform, and also by nicotine, the poisonous oil of tobacco.
Sugar, milk, and other foods had no such effect.