Of Vegetables . 
1-91 
the growth or increase is accomplished by the mere ag- 
gregation of the particles of matter already prepared,, 
and according to the laws of affinity between these par- 
ticles ; and no new properties can be detected in the 
aggregate produced, which are not found in the minutest 
particle of which it is composed. But in organised 
bodies, under which are comprehended vegetables and 
animals, the growth or increase is effected by a very dif- 
ferent process. The substances of which they are com- 
posed are received into tubes or vessels, conveyed to all 
parts of the vegetable or animal, subjected in their pro- 
gress to peculiar changes, and are converted into new 
forms, exhibiting properties and qualities which no che- 
mical or mechanical operation could discover in the sim- 
ple elements. New changes are produced, and new 
combinations are formed, none of which could be de- 
tected in the water, the earth, the air, the heat, or the 
light ; all of which contribute their share to the pro- 
gress and increase of organised bodies. Observing the 
remarkable diversity between the laws which regulate 
the operations of vegetables and animals and the estab- 
lished laws of chemical action, philosophers have na- 
turally inferred the existence and influence of a diffe- 
rent principle called the vital principle, under whose 
power the wonderful and complicated phenomena of 
animals and vegetables are exhibited ; — -under whose 
power the effects of chemical or mechanical agents, 
which seem injurious, are counteracted ; — under whose 
power what is beneficial is selected ; — what is deficient 
is supplied, and what is redundant is cut off. 
The division of organised bodies into vegetables and 
animals, although in both some points of resemblance 
may be traced, is, in general, sufficiently characteristic, 
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