19 



dependant on the common laws of inorganic matter ; the 

 pulpy matter of ripe fruits has its particles arranged in 

 strict conformity with the laws of crystallization, and often 

 possesses a power of double refraction, as in the gooseberry 

 and the orange ; and in'the Animal Kingdom the same laws 

 operate in the formation of the silicious crystals, which com- 

 pose the skeleton of many Zoophytes, as the Cliona, Ha- 

 Una, Leucalia and Tethya, and the calcareous crystals of 

 many Radiated Animals, as the Asterias and Echinus. 

 This, however, does not affect the great characters which 

 distinguish organized from inorganic bodies, and the Vege- 

 table from the Animal Kingdom. 



Organic bodies have an arrangement of internal parts 

 adapted for the transmission of fluids through every part 

 of their structure, which enables them to grow by a pro- 

 cess of internal developement. They subsist on fluids, 

 which in vegetables are sucked up by external filaments 

 or roots from the soil in which they are fixed, or by their 

 whole external surface as in Hydrophytes ; and in animals 

 the fluid aliment is absorbed from an internal reservoir 

 or stomach, by ramified vessels, like internal roots, or it 

 transudes through the surface of their body, as in those 

 animalcules which have no internal cavity. The chemical 

 composition and the whole organization of vegetable bodies 

 are more simple than those of animals, and their phe- 

 nomena are more obviously dependant on physical laws. 

 Their analogies, therefore, with the complicated mechanism 

 and functions of the human body are very remote, and the 

 science of Botany, which forms an important branch of the 

 healing art, owes its high importance and attractions to 

 circumstances totally different from those close analogies, 

 which connect the study of animals, with the practice 

 and pursuits of medical science. 



The elegant forms and delicate structure of Plants, the 

 beauty and harmony of their colours, and the fragrant 

 odours they exhale, the refreshing verdure, the variety, and 

 the richness which they spread over the face of nature, the 



c 2 



