DISTINCTION BETWEEN PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 'C-i 



and upon this the learned do by no means agree. 

 One writer considers the presence of starch iq any 

 object a proof that it belongs to the dominions of 

 Flora, while another would decide the issue by as- 

 certaining Avhether it evolves oxygen and absorbs 

 carbon, as most plants do, or whether it evolves 

 carbon and absorbs oxygen, as decided animals 

 do. Dr. Carpenter asserts .that the distinction be- 

 tween^ Frotophyta and Protosoa, (first or simplest 

 plants and animals,) ''lies in the nature of their 

 food, and the method of its introduction, for whilst 

 the Protophyte obtains the materials of its nutrition 

 from the air and moisture that surround it, and 

 possesses the power of detaching oxygen, hydrogen, 

 carbon, and nitrogen from their previous binary 

 combinations, and of uniting them into ternary 

 and quaternary organic compounds, (chlorophyll, 

 starch, albumen, etc.,) the simplest Protozoa, in 

 common with the highest members of the animal 

 kingdom, seems utterly destitute of any such power, 

 makes, so to speak, a stomach for itself in the 

 substance of its body, into which it ingests the 

 solid particles that constitute its food, and within 

 which it subjects them to a regular process of di- 

 gestion." 



Unfortunately it is very difficult to apply this 

 simple theory to the dubious objects which lie on 

 the border-land of the animal world, and no other 



