r. ANtMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. 22 if 



difcover many analogies between the aninial and 

 the vegetable. This is a fubjedl which has em- 

 ployed me, p. lo. Contemplation de la Nature^ 

 But, amidll all thefe refemblances, how many 

 diffimilarities are there ? The time is not yet ar- 

 rived when we fliall be able to extend experi- 

 ment as far as it may go. Nor have experiments 

 and obfervations hitherto been fufficiently nume- 

 rous and diverfified. They have been made but; 

 for a day ; yet what an affemblage of unexpcclsd 

 fafts have been obtained ! Still are we ignorant 

 of the character eflentially dift!nguif]:i]:g an ani« 

 mal from a vegetable (i). This interefting fub- 



jea 



(i) One of the moft modem phyfiologifts, diftinguifh^ 

 ed by his philofophical refearches, has made a long com-, 

 parifon between plants and animals, which I fhall her^ 

 abbreviate. 



♦ The difference between the folid parts of vegetables 



* and the bones of animals is immediately evident. The 

 ' wood is formed by a layer of bark changing its place. 

 ' The bone by the expanfinn of a net-work, all the parts 



* of which at once expand ; and it borrows nothing from 



* the furrounding flefh as the wood does from the bark. 



* Every year the wood acquires a new ring, and the full 



* diameter is preferved until decrepitude ; but the bones 



* become thinner. Broken bones unite; wood never does. 

 ' The bones are nourifhed by the furrounding parts ; the 



* wood is an affemblage of lymphatics providing fap to 



