COMPLEX APPARATUS FOR NUTRITION. 



95 



organs ; the principle of the division of labour 

 being carried to a much greater extent than in the 

 inferior departments of the animal creation. Be- 

 sides the stomach, or receptacle for the unassimi- 

 lated food, another organ, the heart, is provided for 

 the uniform distribution of the nutritious fluids 

 elaborated by the organs of digestion. This sepa- 

 ration of functions, again, leads to the introduction 

 of another system of canals or vessels, for trans- 

 mitting the fluids from the organs which prepare 

 them to the heart, as into a general reservoir. In 

 the higher orders of the animal kingdom, all these 

 processes are again subdivided and varied, accord- 

 ing to the species of food, the habits, and mode of 

 life, assigned by nature to each individual species. 

 For the purpose of conveying clearer notions of the 

 arrangement of this extensive system of vital organs, 

 I have drawn the annexed plan (Fig 265), which 



exhibits them in their natural order of connexion, 

 and as they might be supposed to appear in a side 

 view of the interior of a quadruped. To this dia- 



