OF PLANTS. 
193 
shock,* and, as is credibly related of some animals, of 
driving away their pursuers by an intolerable fcetor, or of 
blackening the water through which they are pursued.*f 
The consideration of these appearances might induce us to 
believe, that variety itself, distinct from every other reason, 
was a motive in the mind of the Creator, or with the 
agents of his will. 
To this great variety in organized life, the Deity has 
given, or perhaps there arises out of it, a corresponding 
variety of animal appetites. For the final cause of this 
we have not far to seek. Did all animals covet the same 
element, retreat, or food, it is evident how much fewer 
could be supplied and accommodated, than what at present 
live conveniently together, and find a plentiful subsistence. 
What one nature rejects, another delights in. Food which 
is nauseous to one tribe of animals, becomes, by that very 
property which makes it nauseous, an alluring dainty to 
another tribe. Carrion is a treat to dogs, ravens, vultures, 
fish. The exhalations of corrupted substances attract flies 
by crowds. Maggots revel in putrefaction. 
CHAPTER XX. 
OF PLANTS. 
I think a designed and studied mechanism to be, in 
general, more evident in animals than in plants; and it is 
unnecessary to dwell upon a weaker argument, where a 
* The raja torpedo , gymnotus electricus , and some other fish, have 
a curious apparatus of nerves, which in its effects may be compared 
to an electrical battery. In the first named fish, the electrical organs 
are situated between the head and the pectoral fins. When the integu¬ 
ments are raised the organ appears, consisting of some hundred pentagonal 
and hexagonal cells, filled with a glairy fluid. Minute blood-vessels are 
dispersed over it, and its nerves are of extraordinary size. When the 
hand is applied to the electrical organs, a benumbing effect is instantly felt 
in the fingers and the arm. When caught in a net, it has been known to 
give a violent shock to the hands of the fisherman who ventures to seize 
it. Phil. Trans. 1816, p. 120. Ibid. 1817, p. 32.— Paxton. 
f The several species of sepice or cuttle fish have this faculty. 
They possess a bag situated on, or near the liver, called the ink-hag , 
from its containing a black fluid, the contents of which are discharged 
by a muscular sheath compressing the body of the animal. By this 
singular evacuation the creature renders the surrounding element so black 
and bitter, when in danger of being attacked, that an enemy will not 
pursue it.— Jb. 
R 
