ANIMALS AND VEGETABLES. 



that in animals the nutriment, before undergoing any es- 

 sential change is first received into a general cavity in 

 their interior, from which it is absorbed and carried to 

 the various parts of the body, while in plants the nutri- 

 tious particles are carried along through a multitude of 

 minute vessels which never open into a single general 

 cavity. Many of those animalculae which are produced 

 in vegetable infusions are thought, however, to imbibe 

 their nourishment from every point of their external 

 surface. If this be the case, they are of course ex- 

 ceptions to the general rule. The corallines too, which 

 absorb their food from the waters by their numerous 

 feelers acting like the roots of plants, must in strictness 

 be considered as exceptions. Perhaps the best distinc- 

 tion that has yet been offered, is that of Mirbel, founded 

 on the kind of nourishment adapted for their support. 

 We know that plants alone have the power of obtaining 

 nourishment to a considerable degree from inorganic 

 matter, such as salts, earths, airs, substances that are 

 certainly incapable of serving as food for any animals, 

 since they invariably feed on organic matter either of a 

 vegetable or animal nature. So that it would seem to 

 be the office of vegetable life alone to transform inor- 

 ganic matter into organized living bodies. 



Emily. I think I could furnish an objection to that 

 distinction without much difficulty : The earth-worm has 

 nothing but earth to eat ; and the leech, I have been 

 told, will live many months on nothing but water. 



Dr. j?.- Most earths and water, contain in a greater 

 or less degree particles of organic matter ; and it is 

 these which furnish the principal nourishment of these 

 creatures. 



You must now exercise all your faith till I have time 

 fully to explain the wonderful truth which I am now go- 

 ing to communicate to you all the diversified organs of 

 the body, no matter how different in density, color, 

 strength, or function, are every one composed by the 

 various combinations and modifications of a very few sin- 



