438 BIOLOGY. 



be taken up by the body. It now becomes absorbed in 

 the small intestine. The small intestine is the tegu- 

 mentary system, or the root-bark. 



2634. The chyliferous or lacteal vessels stand in an- 

 tagonism with the lung, or the skin as being the origi- 

 nal respiratory organ. It is only, therefore, the infusorial 

 chyle that has been absorbed, not the excrement, because 

 between the latter, as the product of oxydation, and the 

 lacteal vessels, repulsion takes place. The chyle, having 

 been absorbed, enters into the thoracic duct, and from 

 thence into the lungs. 



Evacuation. 



2635. Through the absorption of what is fluid, that 

 which is excrementitious becomes more solid, and is 

 thus given over or transferred into the vegetable, sexual, 

 or large intestine. 



2636. The excrement is now found in another, i.e. in a 

 lower, or vegetable animal. It therefore obtains the 

 direction of all sexual secretions ; it is thrown out or 

 ejected, and in a reverse direction, because the anus is 

 the sexual mouth. 



2637. Digestion is thus through all predicaments, 

 from its incipient dealings with the highest life unto 

 the plant, and from this to the mucous globule, a 

 thorough process of putting to death. 



2638. The nutritive will be through all predicaments, 

 from the infusorium to the plant and to the animal, a 

 thoroughly vivifying or life-inspiring process. Digestion 

 is descension, nutrition is ascension. 



2. Functions of the Respiratory System. 



2639. The branchiae and lungs are the air-organ of 

 the animal, the foliage. The animal, like the vegetable 

 foliage, is oxydized from water or air, by which means 

 the animal sap, which hitherto is only a root-sap, 

 becomes differenced into an aerial sap. 



2640. No animal can live without oxygen gas, because 

 the air is the condition of the galvanic process. 



