nutriment. There is so close a chain of connection and 

 dependence between all the different classes of the Animal 

 Kingdom, that even the lowest may be said to contribute, 

 though indirectly, to the sustenance of man. Animalcules 

 are the food of Zoophytes, which, in their turn, are con- 

 sumed by Radiated Animals and worms; these are devoured 

 by Crustaceous and Molluscous animals, which serve as the 

 food of Fishes ; and Fishes, which are born to a constant 

 warfare, feed on each other, or are pursued by the amphi- 

 bious and cetaceous Mammalia which inhabit the deep, 

 or are seized by the clouds of birds which watch their 

 motions from above, or they are dragged from their secret 

 recesses by the artifice of man. The different classes of 

 Animals generally subsist on those beneath them in the 

 scale of being, or they derive their support from the Vege- 

 table Kingdom, so that matter is perpetually advancing to 

 higher states of organization. 



An acquaintance with the composition, and the degree 

 of digestibility of alimentary substances derived from the 

 various classes of the Animal Kingdom, would prove an im- 

 portant acquisition to medical science. It would greatly 

 extend the powers of the practitioner, by enabling him 

 to derive from animal substances, nutriment adapted to the 

 various states of the digestive organs, in health, conva- 

 lescence, debility, or disease. Thus, in the class of Quad- 

 rupeds, the muscular parts, which consist chiefly of fi- 

 brine, with a little gelatine and osmazome, are the most 

 nutritious; the brain and the glandular parts, which are 

 composed chiefly of coagulated albumen, are less nutri- 

 tious ; and the tendons, ligaments, and membranous parts, 

 which consist principally of a condensed gelatine, afford 

 the weakest nourishment. 



The Animal Kingdom not only presents an inexhaustible 

 supply, and an endless variety of wholesome food, adapted 

 to every state of the constitution, to every taste and 

 idiosyncrasy, to every age, sex, and climate, but likewise 



