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Title:  Natural history: general and particular, by the Count de Buffon, translated into English. Illustrated with above 260 copper-plates, and occasional notes and observations by the translator. [pt.3]
Author: Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de, 1707-1788.
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grow, expand, and are endowed with internal movements and a vegetating life. On this sup|position, they would be equally deprived of progressive motion, action, and sentiment; and they would have no external or apparent cha|racter of animation. But, if this internal part be clothed with a proper cover, or, in other words, if it be endowed with senses and mem|bers, animal life will instantly manifest itself; and, in proportion to the quantity of sense and members contained in this cover, the animation will be more complete, and the animal more perfect. It is this envelope or cover, therefore, which constitutes the distinction between diffe|rent animals. The internal part, which is the basis of the animal oeconomy, is common to e|very animated being, without exception; and, as to its mōde, it is nearly the same in man and in all animals which consist of flesh and blood. But the external cover is exceedingly diversified, and the greatest differences originate from the extremities of this cover.To illustrate this subject, let us compare the body of a man with that of a horse, an ox, &c. The internal part, which acts perpetually, name|ly the heart and lungs, or the organs of circula|tion and respiration, is nearly the same in man and in the animal. But the external cover is extremely different. The solids of the animal's body, though composed of parts similar to those of the human frame, differ prodigiously in 0