42! rniLosoriiY or ZOOLOGY. 



By the aid of this chemical character, the sponge and co- 

 ral, the only beings which make any thing like an ap- 

 proach to the vegetable tribes, may be demonstrated to agree 

 with the other members of the animal kingdom, in the ge- 

 latine or albumen of their soft parts, and the earthy salts 

 which constitute their coverings or support. 



2. Animals differ from Plants in Structure. When 

 we examine the structure of the solid parts of vegetables, we 

 find them consisting of fibres or threads, which lie parallel 

 to one another. In the solid parts of animals, on the other 

 hand, the earthy salts are arranged in plates, forming 

 cells. 



Each fibre of a plant constitutes a tube or vessel for the 

 circulation of the sap. As far as observation goes, these 

 tubes are cylindrical throughout. They are aggregated 

 into fagots, which diminish in magnitude as they proceed to 

 the extremities of the plant ; but the decrease is owing to the 

 separation of fibres to form smaller fagots, not by the subdi- 

 vision of the tubes themselves. The vessels of animals differ 

 widely from such an arrangement. They do not constitute 

 the solid parts. They are all of them conical, give off 

 branches, and diminish by subdivision. The solid parts, 

 then, of animals, are cellular ; those of vegetables vascu- 

 lar ; the vessels of plants are parallel and cylindrical ; 

 those of animals are irregular and conical. The former are 

 simple ; the latter are branched. The organs of support in 

 plants consist of the vessels themselves ; in animals, they are 

 chiefly secreted salts. 



3. Animals differ from Plants in their Action. The 

 preceding observations on the composition and structure of 

 organized beings, establish the existence of characters suf- 

 ficiently marked to warrant the conclusion, that animals 

 and vegetables belong to different systems ; that there is 

 a model peculiar to each ; and that, by attending to the ap- 



