Elementary Zoology, Second EditionKellogg, Vernon L. (Vernon Lyman)
Science
Elementary Zoology, Second Edition
Kellogg, Vernon L. (Vernon Lyman)
Animals; Zoology
=The animal body a machine.=--The whole body of the toad is a machine
composed of various parts, each part with its special work or business
to do, but all depending on one another and all co-operating to
accomplish the total work of living. The locomotive engine is a
machine similarly composed of various parts, each part with its
special work or function, and all the parts depending on one another
and so working together as to perform satisfactorily the work for
which the locomotive engine is intended. An important difference
between the locomotive engine and the toad's body is that one is a
lifeless machine and the other a living machine. But there is a real
similarity between the two in that both are composed of special parts,
each part performing a special kind of work or function, and all the
parts and functions so fitted together as to form a complex machine
which successfully accomplishes the work for which it is intended. And
this similarity is one which should help make plain the fundamental
fact of animal structure and physiology, namely, the division of the
body into numerous parts or organs, and the division of the total work
of living into various processes which are the special work or
functions of the various organs.
=The essential functions or life-processes.=--The toad has a great
many different special parts in its body. Its body is very complex. It
performs a great many different functions, that is, does a great many
different things in its living. And the structure and life of most of
the other animals with which we are familiar are similarly complex: a
fish, or a rabbit, or a bird has a body composed of many different
parts, and is capable of doing many different things. Are all animals
similarly complex in structure, and capable of doing such a great
variety of things? We shall find that the answer to this question is
No. There are many animals in which the body is composed of but a few
parts, and whose life includes the performance of fewer functions or
processes than in the case of the toad. There are many animals which
have no eyes nor ears nor other organs of special sense. There are
animals without legs or other special organs of locomotion; some
animals have no blood and hence no heart nor arteries and veins. But
in the life of every animal there are certain processes which must be
performed, and the body must be so arranged or composed as to be
capable of performing these necessary life-processes. All animals take
food, digest it, and assimilate it, that is, convert it into new body
substance; all animals take in oxygen and give off carbonic acid gas;
all animals have the power of movement or motion (not necessarily
locomotion); all animals have the power of sensation, that is, can
feel; all animals can reproduce themselves, that is, produce young.
These are the necessary life-processes. It is evident that the toad
could still live if it had no eyes. Seeing is not one of the necessary
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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