WITH VEGETABLES. 17 



follows that we are bound to acknowledge the presence of sen- 

 sation or volition in the slightest degree. There may be at 

 least no evidence of its possessing a trace of those tissues, ner- 

 vous and muscular, by which, in the higher members of the 

 animal kingdom, these qualities are manifested. Probably 

 there is no more of either of them in the lowest animals than 

 in vegetables. In both, movement is eifected by the same 

 means ciliary action, and hence the greater value, for pur- 

 poses of classification, of the power to live on this or that kind 

 of food on organic or inorganic matter. As the main purpose 

 of the lowest members of the vegetable kingdom is doubtless to 

 bring to organic shape the elements of the inorganic world 

 around, so the function of the lowest animals is, in like man- 

 ner, to act on degenerating organic matter "to arrest the 

 fugitive organized particles, and turn them back into the as- 

 cending stream of animal life." And, because sensation and 

 volition are accompaniments of life in somewhat higher animal 

 forms, it is needless to suppose that these qualities exist under 

 circumstances in which, as we may believe, they could be of 

 no service. It is as needless as to dogmatize on the opposite 

 side, and say that no feeling or voluntary movement is possible 

 without the presence of those tissues which we call nervous and 

 muscular. 



IV. The presence of a stomach is a very general mark by 

 which an animal can be distinguished from a vegetable. But 

 the lowest animals are surrounded by material that they can 

 take as food, as a plant is surrounded by an atmosphere that 

 it can use in like manner. And every part of their body 

 being adapted to absorb and digest, they have no need of a 

 special receptacle for nutrient matter, and accordingly have 

 no stomach. This distinction then is not a cardinal one. 



It would be tedious as well as unnecessary to enumerate the 

 chief distinctions between the more highly developed animals 

 and vegetables. They are sufficiently apparent. It is neces- 

 sary to compare, side by side, the lowest members of the two 

 kingdoms, in order to understand rightly how faint are the 

 boundaries between them. 



