ANIMAL NUTRITION. 59 



each the quantity and the kind most consonant 

 to enlarged views of prospective beneficence, is 

 calculated to excite our highest wonder and 

 admiration. While the waste is the smallest 

 possible, we find that nothing which can afford 

 nutriment is wholly lost. There is no part of the 

 organized structure of an animal or vegetable, 

 however dense its texture, or acrid its qualities, 

 that may not, under certain circumstances, be- 

 come the food of some species of insect, or con- 

 tribute in some mode to the support of animal 

 life. The more succulent parts of plants, such 

 as the leaves, or softer stems, are the principal 

 sources of nourishment to the greater number of 

 larger quadrupeds, to multitudes of insects, as 

 well as to numerous tribes of other animals^ 

 Some plants are more particularly designed as 

 the appropriate nutriment of particular species, 

 which would perish if these ceased to grow : thus 

 the silkworm subsists almost exclusively upon the 

 leaves of the mulberry tree ; and many species of 

 caterpillars are respectively attached to a parti*- 

 cular plant which they prefer to all others. There 

 are at least fifty different species of insects that 

 feed upon the common nettle ; and plants, of which 

 the juices are most acrid and poisonous to the 

 generality of animals, such as Euphorhiumy Hen- 

 bane ^ and Nightshade, afford a wholesome and 

 delicious food to others. Innumerable tribes of 

 animals subsist upon fruits and seeds; while others 



