9. Mature Animals.—Whence do animals derive their vital force? I answer, from the decomposition of their food and the decomposition of their tissues.
Plants, as we have seen, derive their vital force from the decomposition of their mineral food. But the chemical compounds on which plants feed are very stable. Their decomposition requires a peculiar and complex contrivance for the reception and utilization of sunlight. These conditions are wanting in animals. Animals, therefore, cannot feed on chemical compounds of the mineral kingdom; they must have organic food which easily runs into decomposition; they must feed on the vegetable kingdom.
Animals are distinguished from vegetables by incessant decay in every tissue—a decay which is proportional to animal activity. This incessant decay necessitates incessant repair, so that the animal body has been likened to a temple on which two opposite forces are at work in every part, the one tearing down, the other repairing the breach as fast as made. In vegetables no such incessant decay has ever been made out. If it exists, it must be very trifling in comparison. Protoplasm, it is true, is taken up from the older parts of vegetables, and these parts die; but the protoplasm does not seem to decompose, but is used again for tissue-building. Thus the internal activity of animals is of two kinds, tissue-destroying and tissue-building; while that of
