212 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



sparrow feeds upon the same food, feeds her young and builds her nest, as 

 before the flood. Order and system is Nature's as well as " Heaven's 

 first law." Accident may produce an abortive vegetable growth, a mal- 

 formation, a wart or mole in animals, but never the full-blown rose, an 

 eye, or lung. 



In the human family, the teeth are formed for the mastication of both 

 animal and vegetable food, and the gastric juices of the stomach will dis- 

 solve both, and prepare them for the uses of the human organism. Birds 

 of prey with strong talons, hooked bill, as the eagle, the hawk, the owl, 

 etc., are provided with an organization suited to the form of these mem- 

 bers, and a gastric juice that dissolves only animal food, and will not act 

 on seeds and grasses. The conformations of the mouth of the sheep and 

 ox are formed for browsing upon herbage, and the gastric juices of their 

 stomach dissolve only vegetables, and will not act on animal food. The 

 gastric juices even of graminivorous birds will not act on grains and seeds 

 while whole, but they must be first crushed or ground ; hence they are 

 supplied with a strong cartilaginous stomach for that purpose — an 

 arrangement omitted in birds of prey. 



Those herbivorous animals provided with teeth for the mastication of 

 their food can not digest whole grain or unchewed vegetables, so strict is 

 the relation between the offices assigned to the digestive organs between 

 the mechanical operation and the chemical process. 



The digestive systems of carnivorous animals can not use vegetable 

 food. The cow, the sheep, and the deer can not digest animal food. 

 Still further, those animals without teeth in the front upper jaw are fur- 

 nished means of re-chewing their food at their leisure, as the sheep, deer, 

 ox, etc. The horse has no such power, but has the necessary teeth to 

 chew his food as he receives it. None of these can digest unchewed or 

 unground food. 



The remarkable distinction between birds of prey and grain-feeding 

 birds is worthy of special note ; the former not being supplied with a 

 strong muscular stomach, as in the case of the latter, for grinding their 

 food. It is equally remarkable that so important a chemical distinction 

 should exist between the digestive fluid of carnivorous and herbivorous 

 animals, while man is able to use a mixed food as his organization 

 requires. 



In birds, a soft membraneous stomach always accompanies a hooked 

 beak, short muscular legs, and strong crooked talons. The cartilaginous 

 stomach is found in those who have that conformation of bill and toes 

 which restrains the possessor to picking seeds or cropping plants, as 

 chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, etc. The same stystem prevails in fishes 

 as in animals. Nature's laws are general in their application, and unre- 

 pealable, though governing that '■'■insatiable variety'''' of subjects referred 

 to by Cicero. More interesting, if possible, are the varieties of food, 

 and its manner of being appropriated in the vegetable world, though the 

 demonstrations of the laws governing them and their effects are less 

 obvious to the superficial observer. " Plants and animals have two great 



