2 STATEMENT -OF THE SUBJECT. 



and of life," its stucfy is 'eminently adapted to enlarge our 

 ideas of creation and its Great Author. It makes known 

 to us the Plan of Creation, as exhibited in the highest 

 department of nature ; and thus we are led to know 

 more of Him who suffers not even a sparrow to fall with- 

 out his notice. 



Animals are organized bodies which are nourished by 

 organic food, and which have sensation and the power 

 of voluntary motion ; and they consume oxygen and give 

 off carbonic acid.* 



Animals thus differ fundamentally from Plants, which 

 are sustained by inorganic nutriment water, gases, 

 and earthy materials and which are without true sen- 

 sation and the power of voluntary motion, and which 

 consume carbonic acid and give off oxygen.f 



As to their food, then, animals feed directly upon 

 plants, or upon other animals that feed upon plants; 

 while vegetation, on the contrary, is nourished by the 

 mineral kingdom. And it may be here stated that it is 

 one of the chief provinces of the vegetable kingdom to con- 

 vert mineral or inorganic substances earthy materials 

 and gases into food upon which animals can subsist. 



The Animal Kingdom includes all the various forms 

 of animals, just as the Vegetable Kingdom includes all 

 plants, and the Mineral Kingdom all rocks and minerals. 



* Animals and plants are either separate cells, or a combination of cells 

 more or less modified. And through this structure they are adapted for 

 the reception of nourishing matter, and are endowed with the power of 

 altering this matter and using it for their nourishment and growth. Hence 

 they are said to be Organic or Organized bodies. Mineral substances, on 

 the other hand, have no such structure, and hence are called Inorganic 

 bodies. 



t It is very difficult, and perhaps impossible, in the present state of 

 science, to draw an exact line between Animals and Plants. 



Wohler has shown that some of the Infusoria give off oxygen, and 

 Schlossberger and Dopping have shown that mushrooms exhale carbonic 

 acid. 



