OF ORGANIC NATURE 17 



which acts as a sort of great central telegraph-office, 

 receiving impressions and sending messages to all parts 

 of the body, and putting in motion the muscles necessary 

 to accomplish any movement that may be desired. So 

 that you have here an extremely complex and beautifully- 

 proportioned machine, with all its parts working har- 

 moniously together towards one common object the 

 preservation of the life of the animal. 



Now, note this : the Horse makes up its waste by 

 feeding, and its food is grass or oats, or perhaps other 

 vegetable products ; therefore, in the long run, the source 

 of all this complex machinery lies in the vegetable king- 

 dom. But where does the grass, or the oat, or any other 

 plant, obtain this nourishing food-producing material ? 

 At first it is a little seed, which soon begins to draw into 

 itself from the earth and the surrounding air matters 

 which in themselves contain no vital properties whatever ; 

 it absorbs into its own substance water, an inorganic body ; 

 it draws into its substance carbonic acid, an inorganic 

 matter ; and ammonia, another inorganic matter, found in 

 the air ; and then, by some wonderful chemical process, 

 the details of which chemists do not yet understand, 

 though they are near foreshadowing them, it combines 

 them into one substance, which is known to us as ' Protein/ 

 a complex compound of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and 

 nitrogen, which alone possesses the property of manifesting 

 vitality and of permanently supporting animal life. So 

 that, you see, the waste products of the animal economy, 

 the effete materials which are continually being thrown 

 off by all living beings, in the form of organic matters, are 

 constantly replaced by supplies of the necessary repairing 

 and rebuilding materials drawn from the plants, which in 

 their turn manufacture them, so to speak, by a mysterious 

 combination of those same inorganic materials. 



Let us trace out the history of the Horse in another 

 direction. After a certain time, as the result of sickness 

 or disease, the effect of accident, or the consequence of 

 old age, sooner or later, the animal dies. The multitudinous 

 operations of this beautiful mechanism flag in their per- 

 formance, the Horse loses its vigour, and after passing 

 through the curious series of changes comprised in its 

 formation and preservation, it finally decays, and ends its 

 life by going back into that inorganic world from which 

 all but an inappreciable fraction of its substance was 



