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KIDDS OWN JOURNAL. 



priation of the substances formed by this 

 assimilation and the reuniting of them to 

 oxygen gas, form the distinctive feature of 

 animal life, and the formation of carbonic 

 acid gas its most constant result. Many 

 minor changes occur ; but these are the 

 grand distinguishing characteristics of the 

 two kingdoms, and are such as, in Dr. Lan- 

 kester's opinion, can alone enable us to dis- 

 tinguish between plants and animals. 



This test appears to be a faultless one. 

 It is the result of the grand and simple cycle 

 of being. The animal feeds upon the plant 

 and dies. Its organism slowly, and by many 

 devious and circuitous ways, but (irrespec- 

 tively of its small amount of mineral consti- 

 tuents) most certainly, ultimately produces 

 carbonic acid gas, water, and ammonia, on 

 which the plant, in its turn, feeds ; and thus 

 the two kingdoms march on side by side, 

 antagonistic in their nature, yet mutually 

 dependent — the one grand result being 

 Organic Life in all its infinite variety. 



But, faultless as is the test theoretically, 

 can it be applied to the myriad kinds of 

 microscopic plants and animals ? When 

 millions are compressible into a cubic inch 

 of space, how are we to detect whether they 

 emit oxygen or carbonic acid — or how be 

 certain that the mass under examination is 

 unmixed with animal organisms on the one 

 hand, or vegetable organisms on the other ? 

 Is not the oldest definition of all, that of the 

 Greek sage — " An animal has a mouth" — 

 the best one yet propounded? It would 

 indeed seem so. 



IN THE MIDST OF LIFE WE ARE IN DEATH. 



OUR EATABLES AND DRINKABLES. 



They say, — " a cat is possessed of nine 

 lives." Happy animal ! How many lives 

 then ought a man and a woman to have ? 



It is, we fear, but too true, that the one half 

 of the world does not know how the other 

 half lives ; but it is a no less melancholy 

 truth that few of us know upon what we 

 ourselves live. With the morning meal, the 

 system of cheating nature of its legitimate 

 sustenance commences. Fancy a man, 

 seated at his table, bent upon making a 

 hearty breakfast — he pours out a cup of what 

 he innocently supposes to be coffee. He is 

 mistaken ; it is a decoction of chicory and 

 roasted corn, with the smallest possible ad- 

 mixture of the Mocha bean. He sweetens it 

 with what he imagines to be the produce of 

 the sugar cane ; but a considerable sandy 

 sediment attests the grocer's care to patronise 

 native produce. 



He takes up the milkpot, with a grateful 

 recollection of the cow that yields the 

 pleasant beverage ; he has more reason , 



however, to feel indebted to the pump. 

 Disappointed by the thinness of his milk, 

 he catches up the cream-jug; but only to 

 be treated to a preparation of chalk, richly 

 colored with turmeric. He cuts himself a slice 

 of bread, under the impression that he is 

 falling back upon wheat, the staff of life ; 

 happily ignorant that his loaf contains a 

 goodly quantity of horsebean meal, — to say 

 nothing of damaged wheat, — rectified, as far 

 as appearances go, by doses of alum, with a 

 slight addition, — if the baker be a merciful 

 and conscientious man, — of jalap to assist 

 his digestion. 



And when he proceeds to butter his 

 bread,— so at least he thinks — he is in fact 

 preparing to grease his stomach with a 

 coating of lard. It is the same with every 

 other meal. With the exception of those 

 articles which no adulteration can reach, his 

 constitution has to submit to the vile trickery 

 of the purveyors of the necessaries of life. 

 No recipe has as yet been discovered for 

 producing sham meat. Joints, chops, and 

 steaks must needs be the real thing, — though 

 that, too, often unwholesome enough from 

 the state of the animals before they are 

 killed, if, indeed, they did not die a natural 

 death ; to say nothing of sausages,* which, 

 whoever chooses to eat, must make up their 

 mind to " take things as they come." 



Neither is there any meddling with the 

 inside of an egg or a potato ; though, to be 

 sure, the former may be half-hatched, and 

 the latter black and watery. But let him 

 season his meat with pickles and vinegar, 

 and he may lay his account for a modicum 

 of sulphuric acid ; and even in his cheese he 

 is not unlikely to be treated to carbonate of 

 lime. From first to last he is victimised by 

 the ingenuity of trade, which, on the most 

 approved system of modern commercial 

 economy, supplies everything " cheap and 

 nasty." No wonder if, under such a system 

 of constant ill-usage, the stomach grumbles, 

 and at last positively refuses to perform its 

 proper functions. 



What is the unhappy man to do ? He 

 has recourse to his doctor ; and the doctor 

 sends him to the druggist. But here a new 

 cause of misery lies in wait for him. The 

 doctor sets down on paper what may do his 

 patient good ; supposing the drugs to be 

 answerable to the names in the prescription ; 

 but the hypothesis, in nine cases out of ten, 

 is a rash one. The drugs come indeed from 

 the boxes and bottles bearing the labels of 

 the pharmacopoeia, but their contents are 

 most problematic. Nevertheless, the bolus 



* There is little doubt that seven-eighths of the 

 sausages (so called), consumed in London alone, 

 have the most intimate acquaintance with horse- 

 flesh — and little puppies. 



