OBJECT OF INQUIRY. 583 



viz. because the optic and olfactory nerves are 

 larger, and expanded over a greater extent of 

 surface. 



As an example of the complex mechanism of 

 the higher insects, we are informed that Lyonet 

 discovered 4061 distinct muscles in the Cossus, 

 (while in the caterpillar state) an insect which 

 resembles the butterfly. And as an example of 

 the prodigious muscular power of the more per- 

 fect insects, Richerand states, that the common 

 grasshopper has been known to leap two hundred 

 times its own length ; while there is reason to be- 

 lieve, that in proportion to his size, the flea is still 

 more active and strong. 



In all attempts to improve the science of phy- 

 siology, it should be our leading object to dis- 

 cover the primary physical cause of animal mo- 

 tion ; and whether it resides in the blood as 

 maintained by Moses, Hippocrates, and all the 

 ancients ; or in the nervous system, as supposed 

 by the great majority of modern authors. Until 

 these fundamental questions are decided, the 

 theory of life, health, and disease, must continue 

 involved in profound darkness. Nor is it less 

 certain, that the whole theory of nature must re- 

 main a sealed book, so long as attraction, repul- 

 sion, chemical affinity, polarity, irritability, and 

 sensibility, are regarded as ultimate phenomena, 

 or confounded with primary causation. It is 

 therefore high time that we should look beyond 



Q Q 



