PHYSIOLOGY. 431 



Laceration. 



2582. The mechanical act of putting to death com- 

 mences with the search after nutriment, and thus with 

 the movement of the feet ; to this succeeds the prehen- 

 sion, or seizure with the claws or hands. 



2583. This motion of the limbs is then repeated in 

 the cephalic members, or the jaws. 



2584. The seizure of the food with the cephalic arms 

 or jaws, is the infliction of a wound commensurate with 

 the position and form of the teeth. The teeth are digits 

 of the cephalic limbs, or being devoid of any fleshy layer, 

 claws. A gripe with such digits is in itself the infliction 

 of a wound. For, in order that the food be grasped with 

 only sufficient firmness to admit of its being drawn into 

 the mouth, the sharp digital points of the mouth, i. e. 

 the teeth, must make an incision therein. 



2585. To seize, bite, wound, and kill, is in an animal 

 one and the same act. For, so soon as the food or prey 

 is seized, and consequently wounded, it is drawn deeper 

 into the mouth, and therefore a new grasp and bite is 

 essayed. 



2586. Upon this the food is twirled about in the 

 mouth by the muscles, or is chewed, whereby the parts 

 are separated into mechanical atoms. 



Poisoning. 



2587. Mechanical atoms are, however, not yet dead, 

 because the vital polarity is not extinguished. It is 

 requisite for a dynamic act, which suppresses all gal- 

 vanism, to operate upon them. 



2588. As this act of killing has directly for its object 

 the death of the Organic and that alone, so is it a vene- 

 nation or process of poisoning. To poison is not merely 

 a chemical act, but one having for its immediate purpose, 

 to separate the connexion of the organic atoms. 



2589. The first act performed by the animal is that of 

 poisoning. 



2590. Poisoning, as being a direct aggression upon and 



