CHAPTER SECOND. 



GENERAL PROPERTIES OF ORGANIZED BODIES. 



SECTION I. 



ORGANIZED AND UNORGANIZED BODIES. 



30. NATURAL HISTORY, in its broadest sense, embraces 

 the study of all the bodies which compose the crust of the 

 earth, or which are dispersed over its surface. 



31. These bodies may be divided into two great groups ; 

 inorganic bodies (minerals and rocks), and living or organ- 

 ized bodies (vegetables and animals). These two groups 

 have nothing in common, save the universal properties of 

 matter, such as weight, color, &c. They differ at the same 

 time, as to their form, their structure, their composition, and 

 their mode of existence. 



32. The distinctive characteristic of inorganic bodies, is 

 rest ; the distinctive trait of organized bodies, is independ- 

 ent motion, LIFE. The rock or the crystal, once formed, 

 never changes ; their constituent parts or molecules invari- 

 ably preserve the position which they have once taken in 

 respect to each other. Organized bodies, on the contrary, 

 are continually in action. The sap circulates in the tree, 

 the blood flows through the animal, and in both there is, 



