278 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



The animal oeconomy is full, is made up, of 

 these relations. 



I. There are, first, what in one form or other 

 belong to all animals, the parts and powers which 

 successively act upon their food. Compare this 

 action w^ith the process of a manufactory. In 

 men and quadrupeds the aliment is first broken 

 and bruised by mechanical instruments of masti- 

 cation, viz. sharp spikes or hard knobs, pressing 

 against or rubbing upon one another; thus ground 

 and comminuted it is carried by a pipe into the 

 stomach, where it waits to undergo a great chymi- 

 cal action, which we call digestion : when digested 

 it is delivered through an orifice, which opens and 

 shuts, as there is occasion, into the first intestine ; 

 there, after being mixed with certain proper in- 

 gredients, poured through a hole in the side of the 

 vessel, it is further dissolved : in this state the 

 milk, chyle, or part which is wanted, and which 

 is suited for animal nourishment, is strained off by 

 the mouths of very small tubes opening into the 

 cavity of the intestines ; thus freed from its grosser 

 parts, the percolated fluid is carried by a long, 

 winding, but traceable course, into the main stream 

 of the old circulation ; which conveys it in its pro- 

 gress to every part of the body. Now I say again, 

 compare this with the process of a manufactory, 

 with the making of cider, for example ; with the 

 bruising of the apples in tlie mill, the squeezing of 

 them when so bruised in the press, the fermenta- 



