ON THE ANIMAL FRAME, &c. 



113 



labouring, confining itself to its own cell, which is divided from that of the 

 next by a partition not thicker than a piece of writing paper. The seaman, 

 as he beholds the ruin before him, vents his spleen against the little tribes that 

 have produced it, and denounces them as the most mischievous vermin in 

 the ocean. But a tornado arises — the strength of the whirlwind is abroad 

 — the clouds pour down a deluge over the mountains^and whole forests 

 fall prostrate before its fury. Down rolls the gathering wreck towards the 

 deep, and blocks up ihe mouth of that very creek the seaman has entered, 

 and where he now finds himself in a state of captivity. How shall he 

 extricate himself from his imprisonment ? — an imprisonment as rigid as that 

 of the Baltic in the winter season. But the hosts of the teredo are in mo- 

 tion : — thousands of little augers are applied to the floating barrier, and 

 attack it in e^ery direction. It is perforated, it is lightened, it becomes 

 weak ; it is dispersed, or precipitated to the bottom ; and what man could 

 not effect, is the work of a worm. Thus it is, that nothing is made in 

 vain ; and that in physics, as well as in morals, although evil is intermingled 

 with good, the good ever maintains a predominancy. 



LECTURE XI. 



ON THE BONES, CARTILAGES, TEETH, ARTICULATION, INTEGUMENTATION, 

 HAIR, WOOL, SILK, FEATHERS, AND OTHER HARD OR SOLID PARTS OP 

 THE ANIMAL FRAME. 



In a former lecture we took a general survey of the characteristic fea- ^ ; 

 tures that distinguish th^ unorganized from the organized world, and the 

 vegetable kingdom from the animal : we examined into the nice structure 

 of plants, and the resemblances which they bear to the animated form. In 

 our last lecture we proceeded to an inquiry into the nature of the living 

 principle, took a glance at a few of the theories that have been invented 

 to explain its essence and mode of operation, and contemplated the origin 

 and powers of the muscular fibre, which may be denominated its grand 

 executive organ. 



The muscles of an animal, however, are not the only instruments of 

 animal motion ; the bones, cartilages, and ligaments contribute very largely 

 to the action, and the skin is not unfrequently a substitute for the muscle 

 itself. These, therefore, as well as a variety of other bodies minutely con- 

 nected with them, or evincing a similarity of construction, — as the teeth, 

 hair, nails, horns, shells, and membranes, — are now to pass under our 

 review, and are entitled "to our closest attention ; and I may add, that their 

 diversity of uses and operations, and the curious phsenomena to which they 

 give rise, are calculated to afford not less amusement than instruction. 



I had occasion to remark lately,* that hme is a substance absolutely 

 necessary to the growth of man. It is, in truth, absolutely necessary to 

 the growth of almost all animals ; even soft-bodied or molluscous worms, 

 except in a few instances, are not free from it ; nay, even infusory animals, 

 so minute as to be only discerned by the microscope, still afford a trace of 

 it in the calcareous speck which constitutes their snout : but it is in the 



♦ Series I. Lcct. VI. On Geology, p. 65, and passim ; and Lect. VIII. On Organized 

 Bodies, and the Strncture of Plants compared with that of Animals. 



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