100 ANIMAL FUNCTIONS. 



carried on by insects, that he used to maintain that the 

 carcass of a horse would not be devoured by a single 

 lion, as soon as it would by three green flesh flies, (Mus- 

 ca vomitoria,) and their immediate progeny : for it is 

 known that one such fly will lay 20,000 eggs, which in 

 the course of a single day will produce larvae, each of 

 which will devour so much food, as in another day to 

 increase its weight two hundred times ; and each of these 

 20,000 in the course of a few days more, will produce a 

 third generation equally numerous. 



Relation between the organization of Animals and their 

 food. Thus we see that one race of animals is destined 

 to become the food of others, and these again are in 

 their turn consigned to the same fate from their more 

 powerful enemies. Each kind, whether they subsist on 

 vegetables or flesh, are so organized as to digest the food 

 which their appetites crave. The peaceful cow and 

 sheep are contented with cropping the blades of grass 

 from the field, because their organs of nutrition are fitted 

 for the digestion of this kind of food and no other. But 

 the lion, the tiger, and all other carnivorous animals are 

 organized only for the digestion of flesh, and can no 

 more live upon herbs, than the cows and sheep can sub- 

 sist upon each other. Hence the Creator has pro- 

 vided these animals with claws to secure their prey, 

 and cutting teeth to tear and divide it ; and since 

 this is the only mode by w r hich such animals can live, we 

 are no more at liberty to treat these races with cruelty 

 because they tear other animals in pieces, than we have 

 to mal-treat the cow because she crops the herbage of 

 the field. 



Mian Omnivorous. But while one class of the animal 

 kingdom, are herbivorous, and another carnivorous, from 

 their structure, the lord of the creation, has a stomach, 

 and a general organization, which so far as food is con- 

 cerned, embraces both these classes, and hence Man 



What is said of cruelty towards the predacious animals ? How may- 

 animals be divided with respect to their subsistence ? 



