plants seems to be, principally, at least, of one kind, tissue-building. Animals use food for force and repair and growth, and in the mature animal only for force and repair. Plants, except in reproduction, use food almost wholly for growth—they never stop growing.
Now, the food of animals is of two kinds, amyloids and albuminoids. The carnivora feed entirely on albuminoids; herbivora on both amyloids and albuminoids. All this food comes from the vegetable kingdom, directly in the case of herbivora, indirectly in the case of carnivora. Animals cannot make organic matter. Now, the tissues of animals are wholly albuminoid. It is obvious, therefore, that for the repair of the tissues the food must be albuminoid. The amyloid food, therefore (and, as we shall see in carnivora, much of the albuminoid), must be used wholly for force. As coal or wood, burned in a steam-engine, changes chemical into mechanical energy, so food, in excess of what is used for repair, is burned up to produce animal activity. Let us trace more accurately the origin of animal force by examples.
10. Carnivora.—The food of carnivora is entirely albuminoid. The idea of the older physiologists, in regard to the use of this food, seems to have been as follows: Albuminoid matter is exceedingly unstable; it is matter raised, with much difficulty and against chemical forces, high, and delicately balanced on a pinnacle, in a
