406 ZOOPHYTES IN GENERAL. 



t 

 Though the gnats of Europe are capable of pro- 

 ducing great irritation, they are harmless when com- 

 pared to those of America and the East, where the na- 

 tives are under the necessity of anointing their bodies 

 with oil, to prevent them from being absolutely tor- 

 tured by their sting. 



CHAP. XVII. 



ZOOPHYTES IN GENERAL, OR CREATURES WHICH 

 COME UNDER THE FIFTH CLASS. 



VVE are now come to the last link of the chain in ani- 

 mated JSature, or to a class of beings, so confined in 

 their powers, and so defective in their formation, that 

 some historians have been at a loss whether to consider 

 them as a superior rank of vegetables, or as the hum- 

 blest order of the animated tribe : in order, therefore, 

 to give them a denomination consistent with their ex- 

 istence, they have been called Zoophytes, a name im- 

 plying vegetable nature endowed with animal life. 



Should it be asked what it is that constitutes the dif- 

 ference between these, it might be difiieult to make an 

 accurate reply ; the power of motion cannot form this 

 distinction, since some vegetables possess it, and some 

 animals do not know its use ; for the sensitive plant 

 has doubtless greater motion than the oyster; and the 

 animal that fills the acorn-shell is immoveable, and can 

 only close its lid to defend itself from harm ; whilst the 

 flower, known by the name of the fly-trap, closes 

 upon the flies that attempt to- rifle it of its sweets. — 

 However vegetables may at first appear to possess this 

 important quality, yet it may be considered but as a 

 mechanical impulse, resembling the raising one end of 



