r* ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS, 227 



* pate of the fame eflence, but the diftiiKStive at- 



* tribute is unknown. * The animal has derived 

 its name from that foul which is confidered the 

 fecret principle of its adions ; and its exiflence 

 is judged by the analogy feen between the foul of 

 an animal and the foul of man. We fhould endea- 

 vour to difcover the precife decree of organiza- 

 tion when the capacity to be animated terminates 5 

 or, which is the fame thing, at what degree a 

 foul cannot be united, to compofe that kind of 

 identity which we denominate a mixed being. 

 For, if in the quality of a phyfical being, the 

 animal diifers eflentially from the vegetable, this 

 ought to arife from that part of its organization 

 which conflitutes its phyfical animality. Ihe 

 nerves are the part which apparently render an 

 animal animated. By their offices is the mind 

 fentient and adlive : they are intermediate between 

 the foul and the body. By means of them, the 



P 2 irund 



« 1S8.' The reputation of M. Scnebier is well known, and 

 his opinion muft have great influence on naturahfts. His 

 arguments againil the animation of plants will be found 

 more at large in the original work. Some of them how- 

 ever may be liable to ©bjeaion, although the reit are 

 well founded. Hooper's Qeconomy of Plants, and<Darwin's 

 Phytologia, contain many principles oppofite to M. Sens- 

 bier's. Both works merit high confideration, as they def- 

 cend minutely into vegetable properties. The precife term, 

 when animality terminates is yet uncertain, nor will ge- 

 neral rules to find it be eafily given.— T, 



