10 DISTINCTION BETWEEN ANIMALS AND VEGETABLES. 



part either of some plant or animal. The polype cannot sub- 

 sist upon the water in which it floats; it cannot thrust its 

 feelers into the soil and draw up nourishment from it like the 

 roots of vegetables : no animal can do it. They must have 

 recourse to either animal or vegetable substances which are 

 adapted to their wants and are thrown in their way. The 

 earthworm, it is true, swallows earth for its nutriment, but 

 only that earth which is full of organized matter in a state of 

 decay ; and it is only that matter which is digested, whilst the 

 bare earth is evacuated without alteration. 



4. Animals differ from vegetables in the time of taking 

 their nourishment. The roots of the latter are constantly 

 exposed to the contact of the substances from which they de- 

 rive their support ; they are always buried in the earth which 

 contains and from which they absorb their food. Their leaves, 

 also, are always spread to the air from which they receive 

 one portion of their support. It is not so with animals; their 

 supplies of food are only occasional. They are stimulated 

 by appetite, at certain definite periods, to seek for the means 

 of gratifying it; after obtaining which they are engaged by 

 other occupations, and are liberated from this care, until an 

 additional supply becomes necessary, and they are excited to 

 obtain it by a fresh appetite. 



5. Animals differ again from plants in being possessed of 

 the powers of feeling and voluntary motion. It is true that 

 very remarkable phenomena are exhibited by individuals of 

 the vegetable kingdom, which seem to imply the possession 

 of these powers. But examination shows a distinction be- 

 tween these instances and those which are afforded by ani- 

 mals. There is not a close resemblance between the con- 

 traction of the leaves of the sensitive plant or the vibratory 

 motions of the Hedysarum gyrans, and the extension of the 

 feelers of the polype or the contraction of the shell of the 

 oyster. The former motions seem to proceed from the actual 

 contact of some substance with the moving part, or from the 

 stimulus of light and heat ; the latter, from the spontaneous 

 and voluntary efforts of the animal itself. These differences 

 would be made more obvious by a knowledge of the history 

 of the lower classes of animals. But it may be at present 

 observed, that however remarkable these instances of vegeta- 

 ble motions are, and although they seem as if they might be 

 the result of knowledge, volition, and sensation, they are yet 

 different in nature from the knowledge, volition, and sensa- 

 tion manifested by animals, and do not give cause for con- 

 founding these two classes of beings together. 



