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Untitled Article
part after part is auperadded , and the structure of each part becomes progressively more and more complex . ' Energy of function is the last condition which requires higher organization . > *¦ As much more developed than the wing of the wren is the wing
of the eagle , as its flight is higher and its speed swifter . The muscles which give to the tiger the rapidity and strength of ha spring possess a more intense organization than those which slowly move on the tardigrade sloth . The proportionate bulk arid the exquisiteness of the structure of the brain of man exceed the structure and the bulk of the brain of the fish , as man ' s perceptions are more acute , and capable of greater combination , comprehension and continuity . fc
From what has been said , then , you see why the organization of the animal is more complex than that of the plant . You see that it is not from an arbitrary arrangement ; but that it arises out of the absolute necessity of the case . The few and simple functions performed by the plant ; require only the few and simple organs with which it is provided . The numerous and complicated functions performed by the animal require its numerous and complicated organs .
The plant , simple as it is in structure , is destitute of no organ required by the nature of its economy . The animal , complex as it is in structure , is in possession of no organ which the nature of its economy would allow it to dispense with . From the one , nothing is withheld which is needed ; to the other , nothing is given which is superfluous . In the one , there is economy without niggardliness ; in the other , munificence without waste . '
The second lecture began with a view of the characters of the two lives , combined as they are in the same animal , yet—* As different from each other as the process of vegetation is different from the process of thought . We have seen that , though different , they are united ; that their union is complete ; their action is
harmonious ; and that nevertheless the separate identity of each is perfectly preserved . The organic life has its own apparatus and its own actions ; the animal life also has its own ; and not only is the apparatus of the one not the same as that of the other , but , when observed with attention , and when viewed in contrast , each is seen to be distinguished from the other by characters the most striking . '
1 . The organs of the organic life are single and non-symrnetrical , —as may be observed in some of the most important of them ; the heart , the lungs , the stomach , the liver ; while the organs of the animal life are , in general , double and perfectly symmetrical . The brain and the spinal cord will divide into two equal parts , and the nerves which go off from them go off in pairs . The trunk , so important an instrument of voluntary motion , when
well formed is divisible into two equal halves . The arms , the hands , the lower extremities , are each perfectly similar to its fellow . 2 . The action of the organic organs is indispensable to life .
Untitled Article
54 Dr . SouthwOod Smith on the
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1833, page 54, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2606/page/54/
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