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7 
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ANN i E E 
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE LOWER ANIMALS.* 
BY PROF. P. J. VAN BENEDEN. 
Ix that great spectacle which we call nature, each animal plays a 
distinct rôle, and He who weighs and rules all with order cares as 
much for the preservation of the most repulsive insect as the 
propagation of the most brilliant bird. 
In coming into the world each of them knows its place, and 
fills it the better as it is more free to obey its instinct. Eac 
carries his prompter about with him, and man may be compared 
to their manager. 
Over this great drama of life presides a law as harmonious as 
that which rules the movements of the stars; and if at each hour, 
death carries off from this scene myriads of beings, at each hour 
also life causes new legions to replace them. It is a whirlwind, a 
chain without end. 
It is demonstrated to-day, that the animal, whatever it may 
be, whether that which occupies the top of the scale, or that 
Which touches the last confines of the kingdom, consumes water 
and carbon. Albumen suffices for all the wants of life. The 
Same hand, however, which has brought the world out of chaos, 
has varied the nature of this consummation; it has proportioned 
this universal nourishment to the needs and to the particular 
organization of the species which should draw from it the prin- 
ciple of motion, the maintenance of life. 
It is a very interesting study, that which has for its end a 
knowledge of the food of each species. This study constitutes an 
important branch of the history of animals; the bill of fare is 
Written in advance in indelible characters in each specific type, 
and these characters are scarcely less difficult to decipher for the 
naturalist than the palimpsest or the archæologist. It is under 
form of a bone or of scales, of feathers or of shells, that 
these culinary letters figure in the digestive tracts. It is by visits 
iz domiciliary but stomachal, that we are to be initiated into 
ese details of household economy. 
* Translated from La Reyue Scientifique. 
(521) 
