38 THE STOMACH. 



perish, it is free ; it moves, it feels, it exerts the 

 power of locomotion. Such are the obvious differ- 

 ences between animals and plants ; but if we proceed 

 to a closer investigation of their respective organiza- 

 tion, we shall discover yet wider lines of distinction. 



In all animals, we find an internal apparatus for 

 the reception of food, which there undergoes the 

 process of digestion. From the inner surface of the 

 stomach arise a multitude of minute tubes, termed 

 by anatomists, lacteals, which take up such particles 

 as are digested, and ultimately convey them into the 

 circulating fluid, where they lose all traces of their 

 former appearance, and become incorporated with 

 the body. Now, the very existence of such an 

 apparatus, for the preparation of food previously to 

 its admission into the system, supposes a complica- 

 tion of organs, both internal and external : internal, 

 as to the accomplishment of the change necessary to 

 be wrought on what is subjected to their action ; 

 external, as to the powers of searching for food, and 

 its acquisition when found. 



No common internal cavity for the reception and 

 precursory digestion of food is discoverable in plants : 

 it is received into their system at once ; the fibres of 

 their roots resembling the absorbing tubes which 

 arise from the inner surface of the stomachs of ani- 

 mals. The food of plants is already prepared, so as 

 to adapt it to their support ; it consists of various 

 fluids and gaseous elements, presented by the soil 

 and the atmosphere, and has only to be absorbed. 



