I^JI ON MUSCULAR MOTION, 



effe6l might be adduced, but it would be dirrefpeaful (o 



to this learned body to urge any farther illuftrationson a fubje^ 



fo obvious, 



Divifion of the jhe effeas of fubdivifion, or comminution of parts among 

 parts or an am- i- j • i i •• 11 



mal deftroys the ^"^ complicated organized bodies, is unlike that ot mineral 



conformation i bodies: in the latter inftance, the entire properties of the fub- 



flance arc retained, however extenfive the fubdivifion ; in the 



former fubftances, the comminution of parts deflroys the 



eifential texture and compofition, by feparating the grofs 



arrangements of flrudure upon which their fpeclfic properties 



tut lefs the more depend. From fimilar caufes it feems to arife, that animals 



tlanf/ * '^"'^"pf minute bulk are peceifarily of fimple ftru61ure : fize alone 



J3 not, however, the fole caufe of their fimple organization, 



becaufe examples are fufficiently numerous wherein the animal 



attains confiderable bulk, and is of limple ftruclure, and vice 



verfd : but, in the former, the medium in which they live, and 



the habits they affume, are fuch as do not require extenfive 



appendages, whiifl the fmaller complex animals are deftined to 



more difficult, and more adlive exertions. It may be affumed 



however, as an invariable pofition, that tlie minuteft animals 



afe all of fimple organization. 



Life tnay on a Upon a fmall fcale, life may be carried on with fimple ma- 



fumjorte/wfth ^^^ials; but the management, and provifionsfor bulky animah, 



Vimple materials ; vyith nunaefous limbs, and yariety of orgj^ns, and appendages 



bulky animals of convenience, are not effe&ed by fimple apparatus; thus, the 



oforeanT'^'^^^ fkeleton which gives a determinate figure tq the fpecies, fup- 



ports its foft part?, and admits of a geometrical motion, is 



Thus large ani- placed interiorly, where the bulk of the animal admits o( the 



Sncs^Si^n'' ^^^^^ ^^'^S Sufficiently ftrong^ and yet light enough for the 



them, fmallcr moving powers ; but the fkeleton is placed externally, where 



h^v? them i^ith- ^{^g body is reduced below 4 certain magnitude, or where the 



inovements of the animal are not to be of the floating kind : in 



which laft cafe the bulk is not an abfolute caufe. The examples 



of teflaceous vermes, and coleopterous, as well as moft other 



infefls, are univerfally known. 



Cryftalline of The opinion of the muicularity of the cryftalline lens of the 



'ufa^^** "^^^' ^y^^ ^^ ingenioufly urged by a learned meniber of this Society, 



is probably well founded; as the arrangement of radiating lines 



of the matter of mufcle, from the centre to the circumference 



of the lens, and Ihefetrom parted into angular maffes, vyould 



produce fpecific alterations. in its figure, i 



