xii 



PRELIMINARY DISCOURSES. 



Various attempts have been made, by Naturalists, to designate 

 the distinguishing characters of the three great divisions. The 

 celebrated LINNAEUS, with his characteristic point, and brevity, 

 defined them thus: Stones (said he) grow; Vegetables grow, and 

 live; Animals grow, live, and feel.* It would be difficult, if not 

 impracticable, to giv a better definition in the same number of 

 words : But the description furnished by Prof. DE CANDOLLE, will 

 probably be considered as more complete and satisfactory, -j- 



The bodies existing in nature says the distinguished and lament- 

 ed Professor of Geneva may be ranked under two great divisions : 



I. INORGANIC BODIES, or those which are rude, homogeneous in 

 their structure, destitute of life, and growing only by the mere 

 addition of similar particles to their exterior surface. 



II. ORGANIC BODIES, composed of heterogeneous parts, endowed 

 with life, and growing by the introduction of dissimilar particles 

 within the intimate tissue, or vessels of which those parts are 

 formed. 



Inorganic bodies may be considered as of two kinds : Some of them 

 of immense magnitude, sphaeroidal in their figure, and distributed 

 through space, constituting what are called Stars, or heavenly 

 bodies ; the others, comparatively small, situated on our globe, and 

 all tending more or less to the crystalline form, being known under 

 the general name of Minerals. 



Organic bodies are also of two kinds: the one destitute of sensation, of 

 voluntary motion, and of a stomach, namely, Vegetables; the 

 other, endowed with sensation, capable of voluntary motion, and 

 furnished with an internal sac, called a stomach, these are 

 Animals. 



The foregoing classification may be recapitulated thus : 



I. INORGANIC BODIES dead, homogeneous, growing by juxta- 

 position : two kinds, 



1. One kind, celestial and sphaeroidal Stars. 



2. The other, terrestrial and crystallizable Minerals. 



* The following are the words used by him, whom PULTENEY designates as the 

 "high priest" of the Science -.Lapides crescunt; Vtgetabilia, crescunt, etvivunt; 

 Animalia crescunt, vivunt, et sentiunt. 



f The following, from AUGUSTS DE ST. HILAIRE, .presents, neatly and briefly, the 

 distinction between inorganic and organic bodies. " Parmi les corps qui nous 

 environnent, les uns, bruts et inertes, sont prives de mouvement et de vie; ils ne 

 naissent point, ils se formcnt; ils ne se nourrissent pas, Us s'agglomerent : ils ne 

 meurent point, ils se decomposent. Les autres, au contraires, naissent pourrus 

 d'organes destines a des fonctions diyerses ; ils vivent,se nourrissent, se deyeloppent, 

 et, avant de se decomposer, ils meurent. Les premiers sont les corps inorganiques 

 les seconds lea corps organises." Morphologic Vegetalc, 



