ij-^gt. on animal nutrition. i6y 



4th, Sea worms, which are ga hered by fiihermen 

 for bait, are in like manner full of sand : nor do we 

 know that thej ever search foi vegetable substances 

 of anj sort. Indeed these abound most where no- 

 thing of that sort could be had. 



^th, Gold and silver fifhes, and several other sorts of 

 fifties, can be kept alive for a long time in pure water, 

 in which no kind of animal or vegetable substance 

 can be perceived. On what then do these subsist ? 



Should it be said they derive their nourifhment 

 from small insects they exttact from the water, it 

 would be only pvitting back, but not removing the 

 difficulty J for still the question will recur, on what 

 do these small insects feed ? 



I know these fifties will eat bread, if given them, as 

 veil as flies, and several other kinds of animal food; 

 but this only tends to fliow that nature hath en- 

 dowed them with a power of digesting various kinds 

 of food. Man could live on either flefli, or grain,- 

 or succulent fruits or salads ; he may be therefore 

 called a carnivorous, a granikN^orous, a frugivorous 

 or a herbivorous animal. He might be fed upon 

 any one sort ; but he would also take others with avi- 

 dity, if they came in his way, like the poor fifties we 

 treat of. 



6th, Is it, however, certain, that man does not de- 

 rive sustenance from the mineral kingdom, as well 

 as from the animal and vegetable substances he devours ? 

 Does the water he drinks, which is so efsentially 

 necefsary to his existence, furnifti no part of sub- 

 sistence to him? it seems unreasonable to suppose it. 

 The following case, among many others, confirms this 

 idea. 



