.\UTIUTIOX. 15 i 



derstood in the blood eflectcd by breathing, mephitic air was discharged, 

 and heat engendered by some phlogistic process. 



So the relation of the vegetable to the animal kingdom, and particu- 

 larly as a nutritive agent, vvas understood and yet very inadequately. It 

 was very easy to learn that animal life depends upon vegetable life, or 

 the products of vegetable life either mediately, or immediately, but be- 

 yond the general fact, what was known ? More we may admit than in 

 the other case, and yet mankind had to wait till a comparatively late pe- 

 riod of the world's history to receive anything like comprehensive and 

 clear views on the subject. 



The question has been agitated, very much agitated, what is the 

 proper kind of food for man } Some have maintained that man is herb- 

 ivorous, others, that he is carnivorous, and others again, that he is om- 

 nivprous, or better, that he is polyphagous. 



Originally he seemed to have been herbivorous, he became after the 

 flood, by an additional grant, carnivorous, and adding the one to the 

 other, he has remained polyphagous. The solution of questions of 

 this kind — not difficult on anatomical and physiological grounds — is 

 facilitated by an acquaintance such as modern chemistry furnishes us 

 with the real principles of nutrition in the different species of food. The 

 facts furnished bearing on this point are numerous and satisfactory, and 

 taking considerable interest in them, both as a matter of science, and as 

 illustrating the wisdom and goodness of our Great Creator, we propose 

 to present some remarks on the nutrient relations of the animal and 

 vegetable kingdoms of nature. 



The first inquiry that we institute is : What is necessary for the 

 support of animal life ? 



That animal life has no self-supporting power, and that it is not in- 

 dependent of external influences, it Avould be the merest truism to as- 

 sert. Animal bodies are so constituted that they need continual appli- 

 ances, and of a very gross character, at any rate in their primary forms, 

 to keep them in action. 



The Brunonian theory is, no doubt, correct, if not too minutely 

 scanned, that life is a forced state. It is a flame that requires periodical 

 supplies of fuel to keep it up, and it may be incidentally mentioned 

 whilst the figurative representation is before us, that the vegetable world 

 in the one case, we mean real combustion, as in the other, is the great 

 source of the process. 



It is not worth while to stop to inquire why this is so, why this de- 

 pendence exists. It was certainly not necessary, that is, God could have 

 made animal bodies to run a fixed course without tliis dependence, but he 



