ANIMALS AND THEIR DIET. 403 



2. If the human period is only in fact just begun, if the morning shadows 

 have just fallen on the Earth, we are working on the foundations of human so- 

 ciety. In laying foundations we ought to take the greatest care to do our work 

 well. 



3. The remoteness of the final catastrophe removes the foundations of be- 

 lief of a certain religious society who are constantly fixing days for its occurrence. 

 These predictions have failed so often that now they cause more amusement than 

 alarm. Even the ox, which a man in New York has impoverished his family for 

 ten years to fatten, to regale the elect on that occasion, has gone the way of all 

 the Earth. Although the subject is serious we cannot forbear a smile at the 

 homely suggestion of a western stockman who said if that ox must be kept until 

 the final catastrophe, it would be safer to kill him and "jerk the meat." 



But however remote the final catastrophe may be, it is always well to re- 

 member that the Son of Man cometh to each one of us at an hour we know not, 

 and we should heed his admonition when he says, " Be ye also ready." 



ZOOLOGY. 



ANIMALS AND THEIR DIET. 



Certain facts which have recently come before the public are drawing atten- 

 tion to the question " How did animals first become carnivorous ? " — a subject 

 which is the more interesting as it naturally blends with the so-called " Vegeta- 

 rian " movement. In taking the matter into consideration we must first cast 

 aside two words which enable men to mystify themselves and their fellows. I 

 refer in the first place to the term "carnivorous." This word is sometimes ap- 

 plied to beings which feed on animal matter in general, but it is, perhaps, oftener 

 restricted to such as prey upon the larger animals. Thus some persons would 

 assert that a creature which devours merely worms, snails, insects, etc., is not 

 carnivorous, and in fact zoological systematists have given the names Insectivora 

 and Carnivora to two distinct mammalian orders. Others would maintain that an 

 animal which feeds upon the eggs of birds is not on' that account carnivorous, 

 since eggs are not flesh. To get rid of all this confusion we must for once "do 

 the thing our soul hates," and propose a new word. Let us call creatures which 

 feed upon animal matter, of whatever kind, zoophagous. With the vegetable 

 feeders there is a somewhat similar confusion. It is not strictly accurate, e. g., 

 to call a being which lives on fruits or seeds " herbivorous." Hence it is the 

 safest to speak of all animals which feed upon vegetable matter as phytophagous 

 — a term already in use. 



This being then understood, we turn to the subject itself. If, as every one 

 must admit, plants came into being upon our globe earlier than animals, then, as 



