14: THE PRESENT CONDITION 



dissolving out the nutritious matter in the grass, and 

 leaving behind those parts which are not nutritious ; 

 so that you have, first, the mill, then a sort of chemical 

 digester ; and then the food, thus partially dissolved, 

 is carried back by the muscular contractions of the in- 

 testines into the hinder parts of the body, while the 

 soluble portions are taken up into the blood. The 

 blood is contained in a vast system of pipes, spreading 

 through the whole body, connected with a force-pump, 

 — the heart, — which, by its position and by the con- 

 tractions of its valves, keeps the blood constantly cir- 

 culating in one direction, never allowing it to rest ; 

 and then, by means of this circulation of the blood, 

 laden as it is with the products of digestion, the skin, 

 the flesh, the hair, and every other part of the body, 

 draws from it that which it wants, and every one of 

 these organs derives those materials which are neces- 

 sary to enable it to do its work. 



The action of each of these organs, the performance 

 of each of these various duties, involve in their opera- 

 tion a continual absorption of the matters necessary for 

 their support, from the blood, and a constant formation 

 of waste products, which are returned to the blood, and 

 conveyed by it to the lungs and the kidneys, which are 

 organs that have allotted to them the office of extract- 

 ing, separating, and getting rid of these waste products ; 

 and thus the general nourishment, labour, and repair 

 of the whole machine is kept up with order and reg- 

 ularity. But not only is it a machine which feeds and 

 appropriates to its own support the nourishment neces- 

 sary to its existence — it is an engine for locomotive 

 purposes. The Horse desires to go from one place to 

 another ; and to enable it to do this, it has those strong 



