METAMOKPHOSES 



OF 



MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE VITAL VOETEX. 



Ovid said, our bodies undergo transformations ; we 

 shall be to-morrovj, neither ivhat we are to-day, nor 

 tvhat we ivere yesterday .* The poet-author of "the 

 Metamorphoses " proclaimed therein a far more im- 

 portant truth than doubtless he imagined ; and 

 modern science, after three centuries of experiment 

 and observation, has fully confirmed the words of the 

 Augustan bard. 



Unlike inorganic bodies, which are continually in a 

 state of absolute rest, living beings are during their 

 existence the seat of constant changes. Place an 

 animal or plant in the scale-pan of a balance and 

 endeavour to ascertain its weight with the exactitude 

 of our most perfect instruments ; you will have much 

 difficulty in establishing equilibrium, and as soon as 

 it is produced it will be disturbed, almost as it were 

 by some inherent influence. The pan containing 

 the animal will invariably be elevated, and that in 



* " Corpora vertuntur ; nee quod fuimusve, sumusve, 

 Cras erimus " 



