RELATION TO VITALITY. 33 



Of vegetables ; although corruption is not the 

 cause of animation, animation often flourishes, 

 with the greatest vigor, on the materials which 

 corruption has produced. 



We should find it generally the case, were 

 we to take a cursory review of the different 

 kinds of food, which, different classes of men 

 take for their nourishment ; however different 

 the materials may be on which they feed, the 

 blood and the flesh of which they are composed, 

 possess the same properties, and yield, by 

 chemical analysis, the same product ; whether 

 of a Bramin who lives on vegetables alone, or 

 of a Tartar who is carnivorous. I would ap- 

 peal to the testimony of any determined venison- 

 eater, whether he has not frequently enjoyed 

 the green fat of a stinking haunch, without re- 

 taining, in his own person, any of its offensive 

 flavor. This converting power of the assimi- 

 lating organ on putrid matter, was proved by 

 Mr. HUNTER, and SPALLANZANI. They thrust 

 pieces of the most putrid flesh, tied by a string, 

 into the stomach of different dogs, and after 

 leaving it for some time, by means of the string, 

 they withdrew the meat from the stomach ; 

 and, 'on examining it, they found, that instead 

 of being putrid and offensive, as at first, that it 

 had become fresh and sweet. 



That all the effects which I have above enu- 

 merated, are accomplished by the activity and 



P 



