2O6 Animak. 



and even this great number, compre- 

 hends but a small portion of animated na- 

 ture. Not only the earth, air, and sea, 

 teem with myriads of living creatures, 

 but almost every vegetable, and each sin- 

 gle leaf, is covered with an endless num- 

 ber of inhabitants, whose various forms 

 and properties have afforded matter of 

 astonishment to the microscopic obser* 

 ver. 



Animals are nourished by food, taken 

 in at the mouth, digested in the stomach, 

 and thence, by fit vessels, distributed 

 over the whole body ; but of the process 

 by which the various vegetable produc- 

 tions, which form the food of a large por- 

 tion of animals, is converted into part of 

 the animal, we are totally ignorant. That 

 this change does take place we know, 

 but in what manner we know not any 

 more than the animals themselves do, 

 whose natural organs perform, unknown 

 to them, the functions that are necessary 

 for producing these changes. 



The greatest part of animals have five 

 senses, viz. seeing, hearing, smelling, 

 tasting, and feeling. These, and the way 

 of nourishment of animals, we shall more 



