96 ANIMAL FUNCTIONS 



carried on by insects, that he used to maintain that the 

 carcass of a horse would not be devoured by a single 

 lion, as soon as it would by three green flesh flies (rtnisca 

 vomitoria), and their immediate progeny ; for it is known 

 that one such fly will lay twenty thousand eggs, which in 

 the course of a single day will produce larvae, each of 

 which will devour so much food, as in another day to in- 

 crease its weight two hundred times ; and each of these 

 twenty thousand in the course of a few days more, will 

 produce a third generation equally numerous. 



272. Relation between the Organization of Animals and 

 their Food. Thus we see that one race of animals is des- 

 tined to become the food of others, and these again are 

 in their turn consigned to the same fate from their more 

 powerful enemies. Each kind, whether they subsist on 

 vegetables or flesh, are so organized as to digest the food 

 which their appetites crave. The peaceful cow and 

 sheep are contented with cropping the blades of grass 

 from the field, because their organs of nutrition are fitted 

 for the digestion of this kind of food and no other. But 

 the lion, the tiger, and all other carnivorous a imals, are 

 organized only for the digestion of flesh, and can no 

 more live upon herbs than the cow and sheep can sub- 

 sist upon each other. Hence the Creator has provided 

 these animals with claws to secure their prey, and cutting 

 teeth to tear and divide it ; and since this is the only. 

 mode by which such animals can live, we are no more 

 at liberty to treat these races with cruelty, because 

 they tear other animals in pieces, than we have to 

 maltreat the cow because she crops the herbage of the 

 field. 



273. Man omnivorous. But while one class of the 

 animal kingdom are herbivorous, and another carnivorous, 

 from their structure, the lord of the creation has a stom- 

 ach, and a general organization, which, so far as food is 

 concerned, embraces both these classes ; and hence man 



What is said of cruelty toward the predacious animals ? How may 

 animals be divided with respect to their subsistence ? 



