ELEMENTARY SUBSTANCES. 53 
if the sea was not made for fish, but fish for the sea, then, 
instead of considering animals as created on account of 
plants, we must draw the mortifying conclusion, that both 
animals and vegetables were created on account of inorgan- 
ic matter; the living for the sake of the dead. 
All that we know with certainty on the subject, amounts 
tothis, That the organized kingdom is dependent on the inor- 
ganic; that animals are greatly dependent on vegetables, and 
that the different tribes in each kingdom have determinate 
mutual relations. Judging from the mode of action pecu- 
har to the species of each kingdom, we are led to conclude, 
that vegetables are superior in the scale of being to mine- 
rals; that animals are superior plants; and that they con- 
stitute a harmonious whole, in which the marks of power, 
wisdom and goodness, are every where conspicuous. 
CHAP. V. 
ON THE SUBSTANCES WHICH ENTER INTO THE COMPOSI- 
TION OF THE BODIES OF ANIMALS. 
Aurnoven the attention of many eminent chemists has 
been directed to the examination of the composition of ani- 
mal bodies, a great deal remains undetermined, in this 
difficult department of experimental research. The ele- 
mentary principles which occur in the Animal Kingdom, 
have been ascertained with considerable precision ; but the 
binary, ternary, or other compounds which these form, 
have not been investigated with somuch success. As these 
various ingredients are brought into union in the animal 
system, by the agency of the vital principle, their state of 
combination may be expected to differ widely from the or- 
dinary results of elective attraction. When such com- 
pounds of organization are submitted to analysis, the in- 
fluence of the vital principle having ceased, the products 
