328 



though at these two periods, the hair falls off in greatest quantity, and 

 ihe desquamation of the cuticle is more active. These two phenomena 

 last throughout the whole year, as in southern climates, the fall of the 

 leaves and the renovation of vegetation are continually going on. As will 

 be mentioned, in speaking of the functions of generation, man living in 

 a state of society, and enjoying all the advantages of civilization, is not 

 as much under the influence of the, seasons as the inferior animals. One 

 cannot, however, but observe, that the successive shedding and renewing 

 of the epidermoid parts, as the cuticle, the nails, and the hair, are among 

 the most effective means which nature possesses of parting with the phos- 

 phate of lime, so abundant in all animals, and which, nevertheless, is so 

 insoluble, and consequently so unfit to be carried out of the system, along 

 with the excrementitious fluids. This effect is very remarkable, on the 

 termination of several diseases, in the salutary renovation of the solids 

 and fluids which takes place during convalescence. The hair ceases to 

 grow on the bald head of an old man; his perspiration diminishes; may 

 not this be the cause of the great quantity of calcareous salts, of the os- 

 sification of the vessels, of the induration of the membranes ? 



CXII. What is the ultimate results presented to us, by this series of 

 functions, linked together, growing outof*one another, and all acting on 

 the matter of nutrition, from the moment it is received within the body, 

 till it is applied to the growth and reparation of its organs*? It shows 

 us man living within himself, nnremittingly employed in converting, into 

 his own substance, heterogeneous substances, and reduced to an existence 

 purely vegetative, inferior even to the greater part of organized beings, 

 in his powers of assimilation. But how high is he not placed above them 

 all, in the exercise of those functions we are now about to contemplate, 

 functions, which raise him above his own nature, which enlarge the 

 sphere of his existence, which serve him to provide for all his wants, and 

 to keep up, with all Nature, those manifold relations which subject her 

 to his empire f! 



* Intimately connected with the consideration of nutrition is that of reproduction. 

 This phenomena takes place to a very -limited extent, indeed, in the more perfect ani- 

 mals ; but as we descend in the scale of creation, we find that the destruction of a 

 member or part of the body of an animal is, after a time, followed by a partial, or entire 

 reproduction of the part destroyed : and amongst the lowest class of animals, even a 

 portion only of the body becomes a perfect animal, and presents the specific characters 

 of the parent. In this respect, the phenomena of .animal life, as we descend through its 

 gradations, approach those of vegetable existence. Copland. 



f For further observations on Nutrition, see APPENDIX, Notes S and C C. 



