| to the sun-flower, or to the sensitive plant. 
178 
ANGUS OAT. 
the state of chrysalis is employed by many theo- 
logical writers, and as the germination of a grain 
of corn is employed by the Divine Word itself, 
as an illustration of the wonderful and glorious 
doctrine of the future resurrection of man.— 
Spallanzani’s Tracts on Natural History. 
ANGUS OAT. See Oats. 
ANIMAL. An organized creature, endowed 
with life, and, in most instances, with the power 
of spontaneous motion. Living or organized 
beings have been subdivided by universal con- 
sent, from the earliest ages, into animals en- 
dowed with sensation and motion, and into 
plants destitute of both, and reduced to the 
simple powers of vegetation. Seme plants re- 
tract their leaves when touched; and all direct 
their roots towards moisture, and their flowers 
or leaves towards air and light. Certain parts 
of plants even exhibit vibrations, unassignable 
to any external cause. Yet, these different move- 
ments, when attentively examined, are found to 
possess too little resemblance to the motions of 
' animals, to authorize us in considering them as 
proofs of perception and of volition. They seem 
to proceed from a power, possessed in general by 
all living substances, of contracting and expand- 
ing when stimulated,—a power to which the 
name of irritability has been assigned. The 
fibres composing the heart of animals alternately 
expand and contract, altogether independent of 
| the will of the animal; and thick hair will grow 
on the skins of some animals, when removed into 
a cold climate. As we neither ascribe volition 
nor sensation to the heart or to the hair, so we 
cannot attribute these qualities to the heliotrope, 
The 
nice distinction of character must be cautiously 
| observed, between sensation and mere irritability: 
like the higher powers of reason and instinct, 
they are 
‘* For ever separate, yet for ever near.” 
The power of voluntary motion in animals ne- 
cessarily requires corresponding adaptations, even 
in those organs simply vegetative. Animals can- 
not, like plants, derive nourishment from the 
earth by roots; and hence they must contain 
within themselves a supply of aliment, and carry 
the reservoir with them. From this circum- 
stance is derived the first trait in the character 
of animals. They must possess an intestinal 
canal, from which the nutritive fluid may pene- 
trate by a species of internal roots, through pores 
and vessels into all parts of the body. The or- 
ganization of this cavity, and of the parts con- 
nected with it, ought to vary according to the 
nature of the aliments, and the transformations 
necessary to supply the juices proper to be ab- 
sorbed ; whilst the atmosphere and the earth 
have only to present to vegetables the juices 
already prepared, when they are immediately 
absorbed. 
Animal bodies, having thus to perform more 
ANIMAL. 
numerous and varied functions than plants, 
ought to possess a much more complicated or- 
ganization ; and, in consequence of their several 
parts having the power of changing their posi- 
tion relatively to each other, it becomes neces- 
sary that the motion of the fluids should be pro- 
duced by internal causes, and not be altogether 
dependent on the external influences of heat and 
of the atmosphere. This is the reason that ani- 
mals are endowed with a circulating system, or 
organs for circulating their fluids, being the se- 
cond characteristic peculiar to animals. It is 
not so essential, however, as the digestive sys- | 
tem, for it is not found in the more simple spe- | 
cies. 
The complicated functions of animals require 
organized systems, which would be superfluous in 
vegetables; such as, the muscular system for 
voluntary motion, and the nerves for sensation. 
It was also necessary that the fluids should be 
more numerous and varied in animals, and pos- 
sessed of a more complicated chemical composi- 
tion than in plants, in order to facilitate the 
action of these two systematic arrangements. 
Therefore, another essential element was intro- 
duced into the composition of animals, of which 
plants, excepting some few tribes, are generally 
deprived ; and while plants usually contain only 
three elements, oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, 
animals add to these a fourth, namely, azote or 
nitrogen. This difference in chemical cemposi- 
tion forms the third trait in the character of 
animals. 
Plants derive their nourishment from the soil 
and atmosphere, and thence obtain water, com- 
posed of oxygen and hydrogen; also, carbonic 
acid, which is a compound of carbon and oxygen ; 
while the atmosphere yields an unlimited supply 
of air, composed of oxygen and nitrogen, with a 
slight mixture of carbonic acid. From these 
materials, the supplies necessary to preserve 
their own composition unaltered are obtained ; 
and, while hydrogen and carbon, with a certain 
portion of oxygen, are retained, they exhale the 
superfluous oxygen untainted. The nitrogen, on 
the contrary, is either absorbed in very small 
quantities, or altogether rejected. Such is the 
theory of vegetable composition; in which one 
of the most essential parts of the process, namely, 
the exhalation of oxygen, can only be performed 
by the assistance of light. When plants are de- 
prived of light, an opposite effect ensues. In- 
stead of giving off oxygen gas, and absorbing car- 
bonic acid, the reverse takes place; and carbonic 
acid is disengaged, while oxygen is absorbed. 
The effect of plants upon the air is, therefore, to 
increase its purity during day-light, but to 
deteriorate its quality during the darkness of 
night. 
Animals require for their nutriment, directly 
or indirectly, the same substances which enter 
into the composition of vegetables, namely, hy- 
drogen, carbon, and a certain portion of oxygen. 
