ANATOMY-COMPARATIVE AND HUMAN. 



The study of anatomy begins in the lower organ- 

 isms and ends in the higher. I say the lower, for the 

 lowest may not have been studied or contemplated. 

 The microscope continues to reveal smaller and still 

 smaller phytes and zymes, until the end seems to reach 

 into infinity. The pathologist of to-day has a new 

 microbe to "mount" before he be "done" with its 

 novel predecessor. Numbers of these microscopic 

 bodies have been differentiated as vegetable, and as 

 many manifest the characteristics of animals. Not a 

 few of both kinds do us mortal harm, and a certain 

 other few have been utilized for the benefit of man- 

 kind. The ferments, so called, are mostly microscopic 

 plants. Such organisms are too small to be dissected,, 

 and rarely admit of classification. They have been 

 studied mostly as the producers of disease, as the 

 sources of morbid action, as the living cause of dis- 

 ease, as pathological entities. At present it is a ques- 

 tion whether microbes be the cause or sequence of mor- 

 bid activity, the arguments pro and con being pretty 

 equally divided. It is obvious from experimental tests 

 that the majority of infusoria, as minute germs and 

 spores have been denominated, are deleterious to man- 

 kind, yet a certain minority prove of more or less 

 utility as peptics. 



Plants and trees in a fossil state were the basis of 

 our coal, petroleum, and " natural gas," hence a luxu- 

 riant flora overspread considerable portions of the 



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