74 PHYSIOLOGY OP LIFE. 



Animalization in general is, we know, contra-distinguished 

 from vegetables in general by the predominance of azote 

 in the chemical composition, and of irritability in the 

 organic process. But in this and the foregoing classes, 

 as being still near the common equator, or the punctum 

 indifferentiae, the carbonic principle still asserts its claims, 

 and the force of reproduction struggles with that of 

 irritability. In the unreconciled strife of these two forces 

 consists the character of the Vermes, which appear to be 

 the preparatory step for the next class. Hence the diffi- 

 culties which have embarrassed the naturalists, who adopt 

 the Linnsean classification, in their endeavours to discover 

 determinate characters of distinction between the vermes 

 and the insecta. 



But no sooner have we passed the borders, than endless 

 variety of form and the bold display of instincts announce, 

 that Nature has succeeded. She has created the inter- 

 mediate link between the vegetable world, as the product 

 of the reproductive or magnetic power, and the animal as 

 the exponent of sensibility. Those that live and are 

 nourished, on the bodies of other animala, are compa- 

 ratively few, with little diversity of shape, and almost all 

 of the same natural family. These we may pass by as 

 exceptions. But the insect world, taken at large, appears 

 as an intenser life, that has struggled itself loose and 

 become emancipated from vegetation, Floras liberti, et 

 libertini ! If for the sake of a moment's relaxation we 

 might indulge a Darwinian flight, though at the risk of 

 provoking a smile, (not, I hope, a frown) from sober 

 judgment, we might imagine the life of insects an apo- 

 theosis of the petals, stamina^ and nectaries, round which 



