94 



ON THE GENERAL DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE. 



explain all (he known varieties which distinguish 

 the different species of animated beings. Besides 

 the varieties of the species, there are not, per 

 haps, of all the hundreds of millions which com 

 pose any one species, two individuals precisely 

 alike in every point of view in which they may 

 be contemplated. 



As an example of the numerous parts and 

 functions which enter into the construction of an 

 animal frame, it may be stated, that, in the hu 

 man body there are 445 bones, each of them 

 having forty distinct scopes or intentions ; and 

 246 muscles, each having ten several intentions ; 

 so that the system of bones and muscles alone 

 includes above 14,200 varieties, or different in 

 tentions and adaptations. But, besides the 

 bones and muscles, there are hundreds of tendons 

 and ligaments for the purpose of connecting them 

 together ; hundreds of nerves ramified over the 

 whole body to convey sensation to all its parts ; 

 thousands of arteries to convey the blood to the 

 remotest extremities, and thousands of veins to 

 bring it back to the heart ; thousands of lacteal 

 and lymphatic vessels to absorb nutriment from 

 the food ; thousands of glands to secrete hu 

 mours from the blood, and of emunctories to 

 throw them off from the system and, besides 

 many other parts of this variegated system, and 

 functions with which we are unacquainted, there 

 are more than sixteen hundred millions of mem 

 branous cells or vesicles connected with the 

 lungs, more than two hundred thousand millions 

 of pores in the skin, through which the perspira 

 tion is incessantly flowing, and above a thousand 

 millions of scales, which according to Leeuwen- 

 hoek, Baker, and others, compose the cuticle or 

 outward covenng of the body. We have also to 

 take into the account, the compound organs of 

 life, the numerous parts of which they consist, 

 and the diversified functions they perform; such 

 as the brain, with its infinite number of fibres 

 and numerous functions ; the heart, with its au 

 ricles and ventricles ; the stomach, with its 

 juices and muscular coats ; the .liver, with its 

 lobes and glands ; the spleen, with its infinity of 

 cells and membranes; the pancreas, with its 

 juice and numerous glands ; the kidneys, with 

 their fine capillary tubes ; the intestines, with all 

 their turnings and convolutions ; the organs of 

 sense, with their multifarious connexions ; the 

 mesentery, the gall-bladder, the ureters, the 

 pylorus, the duodenum, the blood, the bile, the 

 lymph, the saliva, the chyle, the hairs, the nails, 

 and numerous other parts and substances, every 

 one of which has diversified functions to per 

 form. We have also to take into consideration 

 the number of ideas included in the arrangement 

 And connexion of all these parts, and in the man 

 ner in which they are compacted into one system 

 of small dimensions, so as to afford free scope 

 &amp;lt;br all tho intended functions. If, then, for the 

 *ake of a rude calculation, we were to suppose, 



in addition to the 14,200 adaptations stated 

 above, that there are 10,000 veins great and 

 small, 10,000 arteries, 10,000 nerves,* 1000 li 

 gaments, 4000 lacteals and lymphatics, 100,000 

 glands, 1,600,000,000 vesicles in the lungs, 

 1,000,000,000 scales, and 200,000,000,000 of 

 pores, the amount would be 202,600,149,200 dif 

 ferent parts and adaptations in the human body ; 

 and if all the other species were supposed to be 

 differently organised, and to consist of a simi 

 lar number of parts, this number multiplied by 

 300,000, the supposed number of species the 

 product would amount to 60,780,044,760,000,000, 

 or above sixty thousand billions, the numbei 

 of distinct ideas, conceptions or contrivances, in 

 relation to the animal world a number of which 

 we can have no precise conception, and which, 

 to limited minds like ours, seems to approximate 

 to something like infinity ; but it may tend to 

 convey a rude idea of the endless multiplicity 

 of conceptions which pervade the Eternal Mind. 

 That many other tribes of animated nature 

 have an organization no less complicated and 

 diversified than that of man, will appear from 

 the following statements of M. Lyonet. This 

 celebrated naturalist wrote a treatise on one 

 single insect, the cossus caterpillar, which lives 

 on the leaves of the willow, in which he has 

 shown, from the anatomy of that minute animal, 

 that its structure is almost as complicated as that 

 of the human body, and many of the parts which 

 enter into its organization even more numerous. 

 He has found it necessary to employ twenty 

 figures to explain the organization of the head, 

 which contain 228 different muscles. There are 

 1647 muscles in the body, and 2066 in the in 

 testinal tube, making in all 3941 muscle^; or 

 nearly nine times the number of muscles in the 

 human body. There are 94 principal nerves 

 which divide into innumerable ramifications. 

 There are two large tracheal arteries, one at 

 the right, and the other at the left side of tha 

 insect, each of them communicating with the air 

 by means of nine spiracula. Round each spira- 

 culum the trachea pushes forth a great number 

 of branches, which are again divided into smaller 

 ones, and these further subdivided and spread 

 through the whole body of the caterpillar; they 

 are naturally of a silver colour, and make a 

 beautiful appearance. The principal trachael 

 vessels divide into 1326 different branches. All 

 this complication of delicate machinery, with 

 numerous other parts and organs, are com 

 pressed into a body only about two inches in 

 length. 



* The amazing extent of the ramification of the 

 veins and nerves may be jurlsed of from this circum 

 stance, that neither the point of the smallest needle, 

 nor the infinitely finer lance of a gnat can pierce 

 any part without drawing blood, and causing an un 

 easy sensation, consequently without wounding, by 

 so small a puncture, both a nerve and a vein: and 

 therefore the number of these vessels here assumed 

 may be considered as far below the truth. 



