VEGETABLES AND ANIMALS. 17 



ate character are produced. The most wonderful of the powers 

 |f animal life are small, compared with these. 



Animal bodies are constantly undergoing change. From birth 

 \ death, the animal is subject to a continual waste. Every mo- 

 on, the most trilling as well as the most powerful, is accompanied 

 ^ a loss of matter. Every breath we exhale carries away its 

 lare of our bodies. The lungs — the skin — the intestines — are all 

 /enues by which the particles which compose the animal struc- 

 [^re are thrown off and separated. So that it is true that in 

 He ordinary length of human life, the entire body is several times 

 Jtirely changed. This will be easily understood, when we 

 idect, that by means of the lungs alone, during the process of 

 i^piration, a full grown man will daily discharge several ounces 

 ( carbon. 



We have no evidence of any such waste in vegetables. From 

 t.' moment of germination through the whole life of the plant, 

 t>re is a constant accumulation of matter. There is no time 

 \ en it ceases to grow, till it ceases to live. As a general rule, 

 1 re is a limit to the growth of the animal, when it has reached 

 vlich, all the vital force is expended in maintaining the bulk it 

 h; attained. After a time, it is insufficient to support this, and 

 tl! disposition to waste predominates, and for the remainder of 

 li the body progressively diminishes, till death supervenes upon 

 til worn-out forces. But there is no fixed limit to the growth of 

 Trctables. Supply them with the requisite food and they con- 

 to grow and add yearly to their bulk. The natural period 

 >■ for some is but one or two years, and they have attained 

 full size, and die. But as far as is known, perennial plants 

 ■. ithout limit to their life, and do not die of old age. * Trees 

 t this day growing upon this earth which are many hundred 

 old, and yet seem to flourish with perpetual youth. How- 

 ihis may be, as long as plants live, they constantly are add- 

 ii!lo their size. 



it ditferent as animals and vegetables are in these and other re- 

 s, they are, to a great degree, mutually dependent upon each 

 : for life. If the animal kingdom is supplied with food by 

 ther, by the constant waste which is going on in its organiza- 



le reader is referred in connection with this subject, to an extract on another 

 if this No. J on the "Duration of Varieties of Fruit Trees." — Eds. 

 L. II. — NO. I. C 



