the Appearance of Man on the Earth, 47 



This looks very paradoxical, but still it is true, We may, in- 

 deed, live on mere vegetable diet, provided that the plants 

 have grown on a soil manured with the dung of animals ; but 

 the dung of animals implies the existence of these latter. Ani- 

 mals were, therefore, of necessity the precursors of the human 

 race. Animals are said to be either carnivorous or herbivor- 

 ous. We may, with equal justice, express ourselves in this 

 manner : every animal is both herbivorous and carnivorous. 

 Our horses and our cattle are classed among the herbivorous 

 animals, but their food is produced on a soil fertilized by the 

 dung of animals. Although we are not in the habit of manur- 

 ing our pasture lands, it is easy to prove that the growth of 

 the grass depends entirely on the presence of animal manure, 

 which, if not actually mixed with the soil, is carried to the 

 plants by the atmosphere. 



As it is very evident that the world of animals has emanated 

 from that of vegetables, it follows that the first race of animals 

 inhabiting our earth were purely herbivorous. It would, how- 

 ever, be difficult to point out the exact species. I merely wish 

 to draw your attention to the fact, that when plants, of what- 

 ever description, are made to pass into a state of putrefaction 

 by keeping them immersed in water, a crowd of animalculae — 

 the so-called Infusoria — is then brought to view by the micro- 

 scope. The same mysterious laws, which cause animals to 

 spring up under our own eyes, were likewise in operation at 

 the period when the earliest race of animals was called into 

 being. With the infusoria the first link of the great chain is 

 given, connecting one generation with another, until it closes 

 with our own species, the last and most perfect of created ani- 

 mals. 



All that is required are infusoria — dating their birth from 

 the putrefaction of vegetable matter — in order to obtain a 

 series of carnivorous animals. 



The moment that plants began to decay, and to give rise to 

 infusoria, which, in their turn, fell a prey to other small ani- 

 mals — ^for instance, to the mollusca, which again became the 

 food of a larger species, &c. — they became part of the food of the 

 monstrous reptiles, the most voracious of the then existing 

 animals ; that moment organization had taken a new direction. 



