56 THE VITAL FUNCTIONS. 



that most of the insects which feed on decomposing 

 materials, whether animal or vegetable, consume a 

 much larger quantity than they appear to require 

 for the purposes of nutrition. We may hence infer 

 that in their formation other ends were contem- 

 plated, besides their own individual existence. 

 They seem as if commissioned to act as the sca- 

 vengers of organic matter, destined to clear away 

 all those particles, of which the continued accumu- 

 lation would have tainted the atmosphere or the 

 waters with infection, 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 admir- 

 ing 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 be- 

 stowed upon the soil, reappearing in the substance 

 of some plant, and being in this way made to con- 

 tribute eventually to the same ultiiijate 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 organiza- 

 tions, 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 circumstances, again partaking of ani- 

 mation, and invested with various forms of infusory 

 animalcules, which sport in countless myriads their 



