BARON CUVIER. 65 



with them several modifications into the func- 

 tions common to all organised beings, and these 

 modifications more particularly belong to and 

 constitute the nature of animals." 



As one example, among many others which 

 the limits of this volume will not allow me to 

 insert, I shall cite M. Cuvier*s general descrip- 

 tion of digestion. " Vegetables, which are at- 

 tached to the ground, absorb the nutritive parts 

 of the fluids which they imbibe by means of 

 their roots. These roots, divided to infinity, 

 penetrate into the smallest spaces, and, as it 

 were, seek at a distance for nourislniient to the 

 plant to which they belong : their action is tran- 

 quil and continuous, and is only interrupted by 

 a drying-up of the juices in the soil w^liich are 

 necessary to them. Animals, on the contrary, 

 not being fixed, and constantly changing place, 

 must carry with them the provision of juices 

 essential for their nutrition; therefore they have 

 received a cavity in which their alimentary sub- 

 stances are placed, into the cells of wdiich open 

 the pores, or absorbing vessels, and which, accord- 

 ing to the forcible expression of Boerhaave, are 

 true internal roots. The size of this cavity, and 

 its orifices, permit several animals to introduce 

 solid substances into it; these require mechan- 



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