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62 THE NOMENCLATURE 



fimilated, and, by uniting in a common point, 

 forms a new being perfedly fimilar to the firft, 

 and, to attain the fame dimeniions, requires only 

 to be developed by the fame mode of nutrition. 

 He perceived that man, quadrupeds, cetaceous ani- 

 mals, birds, reptiles, infects, trees, and herbs, were i 

 nourilhed, expanded, and reproduced by the fame I; 

 law; and that the mode of their nutiicion and '■ 

 generation, though depending on the fame gene- ! 

 ral caufe, appeared to be very different, becaufc 

 it could not operate but in a manner relative to 

 the form of each particular fpecies of being. 

 Proceeding gradually in his invertigation, he be- 

 gan, after a fucceifion of ages, to compare ob- 

 je£ls. To diftinguifh them from each other, he 

 gave them particular names ; and, to unite them 

 under one point of view, he invented general 

 terms. Taking his own body as the phyfical 

 model of all animated being.s, he meafured, exa- 

 mined, and compared all their parts, and he dif- 

 covered that the form of every animal which 

 breathes is nearly the fame ; that, by difleding 

 an ape, we may learn the anatomy of a man ; '( 

 that, taking another animal, v/e always find the '< 

 fame fund of organization, the fame fenfes, the j! 

 fame vifcera, the fame bones, the fame flelli, the 'i 

 fame motion of the fluids, the fame play and ac- 1^ 

 tion of the folids. In all of them he found a |i 

 heart, veins, and arteries, and the fame organs of is 

 circulation, refpiration, digeftion, nutrition, and ij 

 fecretion ; in all of them, he found a folid ftruc- ji 



ture ;S 



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