DISTINCTION BETWEUN ANIMALS AND VEGETABLES. \) 



1. With respect to their mode of taking and digesting food. 

 In animals this is done by an act of their own, by the exer- 

 cise of volition. They in some sense exercise choice and 

 make efforts to get that which is adapted to their purposes. 

 This is obvious enough with regard to the larger and more 

 perfect animals ; but even in the most imperfect kinds, as in 

 the polypes, we find that they are capable of sending out their 

 arms or feelers in search of food, which, when offered to their 

 grasp, they neize and convey into the organ appropriated for 

 digestion. It is true that the roots and other parts of plants, 

 as has been already remarked, show a sort of intelligence and 

 discrimination in the course which they take in search of 

 moist and fertile ground, and in avoiding or seeking light or 

 shade, which is analogous to the low degree of power mani- 

 fested in the feelers of the polypes ; yet the analogy is but 

 slight, and does not imply the existence of spontaneous and 

 voluntary motion. Animals are affected by the sensation of 

 hunger, and are induced by it to make immediate and volun- 

 tary exertions for its relief. Vegetables are not so affected, 

 and the efforts which they make to obtain nutriment are slow, 

 and accomplished as much by the gradual operation of ex- 

 ternal circumstances, as by an internal and voluntary power. 



2. Digestion is performed in animals by means of a stom- 

 ach and an intestinal canal. The food is taken into the body, 

 and is there operated upon by organs, which are different in 

 different species, according to the nature of the substances 

 on which they subsist. The principal of these is a stomach. 

 In plants, on the contrary, nourishment is absorbed directly 

 from the earth by the roots, or from the air by the leaves ; 

 there is no intermediate organ where a change is wrought in 

 its nature before it is introduced into the circulation ; it is 

 true that it undergoes such a change in order to adapt it to 

 the purposes of the particular plant into which it is taken, 

 yet it is not effected, as in animals, by means of their internal 

 surface. For although it has been said, that the polypes, 

 when turned inside out, continue to perform the function of 

 digestion without interruption as under ordinary circum- 

 stances, yet even in this case it is still the internal surface 

 which digests, that which was formerly external, exchanging 

 functions as well as situations with that which was within. 



3. Animals differ also from vegetables in the nature of their 

 food. They are not capabie, like plants, of being nourished 

 by the common elements of nature, but require substances 

 which have been already organized, and have once formed a 



