28 



100.00 100.00 



Other parts of animals, wood, hair, skin, &c., are com- 

 posed of the same elements, with less inorganic matter; 

 horn containing only .07 per cent, of ash. 



It will doubtless be admitted without the presentation 

 of any further argument, that the whole body of mobile 

 matter, as existing in the atmosphere and waters of the 

 earth, has been diminished by the whole amount yielded 

 to the existing living creation. There is less water and 

 less atmosphere since these living organisms grew. If the 

 sum of the whole be greater than any of its parts, or a part 

 can not equal tlie whole, this must be true. 



But it may be said these bodies will decay, and their 

 elements will then be restored to their original mobile 

 forms. The processes which renovate the earth are by no 

 means so simple ; " thousands of carcasses and whole forests 

 of drift timber are buried every year, and perhaps so 

 buried as to be imprisoned for whole geological epochs." 



Bodies in water change slowly, and in the earth still 

 more so. Professor Winchell, one of the most advanced 

 geologists of the age, "doubts whether the requisite con- 

 ditions of oxydation exists at great depths in the soil." 

 "It needs only a tine covering of such deposits as are con- 

 stantly taking place in the oceans and at the mouths of 

 rivers to bury them away and prevent further decay." 

 Upon the Siberian plains, and in the ices of the !N"orth, 

 dead bodies have been discovered so entirely unchanged as 

 to be greedil}' devoured by dogs. ^N^ative timber, with 

 seeds, and even leaves and fruits, is found a very remark- 



