62 THE VITAL FUNCTIONS. 



their own individual existence. They seem as if 

 commissioned to act as the scavengers of organic 

 matter, destined to clear away all those particles, 

 of which the continued accumulation would have 

 tainted the atmosphere or the waters with infec- 

 tion, and spread a wide extent of desolation and 

 of death. 



In taking these general surveys of the plans 

 adopted by nature for the universal subsistence 

 of the objects of her bounty, we cannot help ad- 

 miring how carefully she has provided the means 

 for turning to the best account every particle of 

 each product of organic life ; whether the material 

 be consumed as food by animals, or whether it 

 be bestowed upon the soil, reappearing in the 

 substance of some plant, and being in this way 

 made to contribute eventually to the same ulti- 

 mate object, namely, the support of animal life. 



But we may carry these views still farther, 

 and following the ulterior destination of the 

 minuter and unheeded fragments of decomposed 

 organizations, which we might conceive had been 

 cast away, and lost to all useful purposes, we 

 may trace them as they are swept down by the 

 rains, and deposited in pools and lakes, amidst 

 waters collected from the soil on every side. 

 Here we find them, under favourable circum- 

 stances, again partaking of animation, and in- 

 vested with various forms of infusory animalcules, 



