ELEMENTARY SUBSTANCES. 53 



if the sea was not made for fish, but fish for the sea, then, 

 instead of considering animals as created on account of 

 plants, we must draw the mortifying conclusion, that both 

 animals and vegetables were created on account of inorgan- 

 ic matter ; the living for the sake of the dead. 



All that we know with certainty on the subject, amounts 

 to this, That the organized kingdom is dependent on the inor- 

 ganic; that animals are greatly dependent on vegetables, and 

 that the different tribes in each kingdom have determinate 

 mutual relations. Judging from the mode of action pecu- 

 liar to the species of each kingdom, we are led to conclude, 

 that vegetables are superior in the scale of being to mine- 

 rals ; that animals are superior plants ; and that they con- 

 stitute a harmonious whole, in which the marks of power, 

 wisdom and goodness, are every where conspicuous. 



CHAP. V. 



ON THE SUBSTANCES WHICH ENTER INTO THE COMPOSI- 

 TION OF THE BODIES OF ANIMALS. 



ALTHOUGH the attention of many eminent chemists has 

 been directed to the examination of the composition of ani- 

 mal bodies, a great deal remains undetermined, in this 

 difficult department of experimental research. The ele- 

 mentary principles which occur in the Animal Kingdom, 

 have been ascertained with considerable precision ; but the 

 binary, ternary, or other compounds which these form, 

 have not been investigated with so much success. As these 

 various ingredients are brought into union in the animal 

 system, by the agency of the vital principle, their state of 

 combination may be expected to differ widely from the or- 

 dinary results of elective attraction. When such com- 

 pounds of organization are submitted to analysis, the in- 

 fluence of the vital principle having ceased, the products 



