44 INTRODUCTION. 



forming part, entering into the whole organization, and 

 constituting its most extensive and universal elementary 

 solid. 



The fifth element is the nutritive fluid. 



This, called the sap in the vegetable, is the white or red 

 blood in the animal. 



The relative proportion of this fluid varies in the two 

 kingdoms; it is greater in the animal than in the vegeta- 

 ble, and greater in youth than in old age. 



The sixth element is nutrition. 



This belongs to the whole organic world from the blade 

 of grass to the towering oak or from the simple worm to 

 the huge elephant the forms of nutrition infinitely vary- 

 ing, but the result the same in all, to wit, the appropria- 

 tion of material for organization and its preservation. 



It is -upon this universal function that the growth of all 

 organic bodies depends the material of supply being from 

 within the body. 



Now nothing like nutrition is seen in the inorganic be- 

 ing, for when it grows it is not from within itself, and by 

 a complicated process of action as occurs in the organic 

 body, but simply by the addition of particle to particle of 

 similar nature from without, and upon its superficies. 



A seventh element is the complete dependency of all the 

 parts composing every organic body, and this is most es- 

 pecially true of those which are high in the scale of animal 

 formation. 



For here it is certain death to any part to be separated 

 from the body of which it forms a portion, while the body 

 itself suffers, in turn, in proportion to the importance of 

 the part it has lost, and if it be any of the essential organs 

 of life, death is as instant to the whole body as to these 

 parts. 



It is true some animals, very low in the scale, as the 

 polypus, may be separated into pieces, and each piece not 

 only has the power to live, but still further to recreate 

 itself into a perfect animal. 



