AND ANIMAL LIFE. 103 



with what is here advanced, it is observed, that 

 the respiration is less frequent, and the contrac- 

 tions of the heart less numerous, as we proceed 

 from infancy to maturity ; and the power of 

 bearing cold is augmented in extent propor- 

 tionate to these changes, not because the power 

 of generating heat is increased, as supposed by 

 Dr EDWARDS of Paris, but because the agency 

 of external causes have not the same states of the 

 circulatory system to influence, 



XCIV. In tracing the infant a little* fur- 

 ther in its progress; we perceive the gradual 

 development of animal life, and the more vigor- 

 ous exercise of those parts belonging to the 

 organic. The mind is not only susceptible to 

 impressions, but is anxious to cultivate a know-* 

 ledge of the various objects by which it is sur- 

 rounded ; and the different sports of this age are 

 calculated to give strength and agility to the 

 body, acuteness to the senses, and vigour to the 

 assimilating functions. 



XCV. In harmony with what I stated in 

 xc. and xci. the child loses, as it approaches 

 the teens, that chubby fulness which charac- 

 terised its earlier years, shewing that this con- 

 dition was not to be referred to the activity 

 of the digestive process, but to the sluggishness 

 of mental and physical powers which are sub- 

 sequently brought into action. Without dwell- 

 ing any longer on gradations of the system, that 



