CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

Milk, derivation of the term.-Its peculiar properties and characteristics.-Primary design of.-Providence of successive nature:Importance of the study.-Mutual dependence of the animal and vegetable kingdoms.-Parts of the system essential to the whole. -Evidences of design in creation.-Material things subservient to a moral purpose.-Tendencies of these considerations.

MILK, from the Greek Mel-yew, or the Latin Mulgeo, which literally signifies to press out by handling or softening with the hand, is the name of a well known animal fluid. It is the only material in the whole range of organic matter, that is designed and prepared by nature, expressly as food. Being a natural compound of albumen,* oil and sugar, which constitute the three great staminal principles that are essential to the support of animal life, it is a model of what a nutricious substance ought to be, and the most perfect of all elementary aliments. Such being its characteristics, it possesses both animal and vegetable properties, and naturally takes its place at the head of nutrient substances. As it cannot be imitated by art, it occupies a

* The principles fibrin and albumen, which play so important a part in the constitution of the animal solids, are now, on the authority of Liebeg, stated to be identical. M. Dennis has communicated a letter to the Academy of Sciences, in which Liebeg states that he has been able to dissolve fibrin by a moderate heat in a saturated solution of nitre, and that the fluid has all the properties of a solution of albumen.-Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal.

† Prout's Treatise, p. 259.

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PRIMARY DESIGN OF MILK.

place among aliments which nothing else can supply. It is, indeed, made essential by Infinite Wisdom to the existence not only of the human family, but also to many most useful orders of animals, to which man, notwithstanding his higher attributes, in physical organization, is nearly allied.

Milk was primarily designed to nourish the young of certain species of animals, during the early stages of their existence; its use, of course, as food, has been coeval with their creation. But as its nourishing properties and adaptation to the wants of man could not long have escaped his observation, it is not reasonable to infer that he who was the divinely appointed lord of irrational creatures, would hesitate to appropriate this unlabored gift of nature to his And as this subservience of the creatures to the necessities and comforts of man, secured from him in return that protection which would tend to augment their numbers and increase their enjoyments, we may not doubt, that in this way, the beneficent intentions of the Creator were best fulfilled.

own use.

But, important as is the part which milk sustains in the animal economy, its history has never been written. Yet who will affirm that the subject, either in itself or in its relations, is devoid of interest and useful instruction? We refer not now solely to the fluid aliment which is of the highest economical value to man; nor yet to the lacteal system, which has been denominated a constant wonder; but chiefly to the providence of successive nature in the animal kingdom, which from the remotest antiquity has preserved for the use of mankind so valuable a class as the mammiferous domesticated animals from extinction. If the humblest production of the Creator deserves the consideration of the philosophical naturalist, much more should

IMPORTANCE OF THE BOVINE TRIBES.

27

the mass of mankind regard with interest an order of quadrupeds with which they have the nearest connection, and from whom the advantages derived are so important, that man with all his moral and mental endowments, has never yet attained a state of civilization without their subjugation. To enter, however, into an exposition of this department of zoological science, would be as foreign to our object as superfluous in itself, for it has already been a subject of careful investigation by others. But there is one view, which, so far as we are informed, has not been given by any writer. We refer to the distinction which has been assigned the bovine tribes in history, from the infancy of human society. The ox and his kind have followed man in all his migrations. There is scarcely a country in which they are not either indigenous or naturalized. And as in this we discover the wisdom and benevolence of a designing Providence strikingly illustrated, it is proposed to throw together a few proofs of the fact, as we find them scattered in the records of past ages. This, we conceive, will furnish a profitable subject of contemplation, and, perhaps, not inappropriately introduce the volume to the reader.

It may here, however, be preliminarily remarked, that means with reference to ends are everywhere manifested in the endless diversities of inanimate matter-also in the orders and gradations of animated beings, which appear reciprocally dependent and necessary to each other. An illustration of this principle, as manifested in the relation of the animal part and the vegetable part of the creation to each other through the medium of the atmosphere, is thus expressed by Mr. Madison: "It seems now to be well understood, that the atmosphere when respired by animals, becomes unfitted for their further use, and fitted for the absorption of vegetables; and that when evolved by the latter,

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ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE KINGDOMS.

it is unfitted for the respiration of the former: an interchange being thus kept up, by which the breath of life is received by each in a wholesome state, and in return for it an unwholesome one. May it not be concluded from this admirable arrangement and beautiful feature in nature, that if the whole class of animals were extinguished, the use of the atmosphere by the vegetable class alone, would exhaust it of its life-supporting power: that, in like manner, if the whole class of vegetables were extinguished, the use of it by the animal class alone would deprive it of its fitness for their support ?"

If such is the constitution of nature, and these views are maintained with great distinctness and ability by Dr. Justa Liebig in his late work on organic chemistry, no part can be subtracted without disturbing the equilibrium of an exactly balanced system, and, so far as we know, without destroying the whole. Hence the wisdom displayed in the adaptation and nice adjustment of the several parts to each other; and also in securing, amidst incessant disruptions and changes, the continued action of such causes as are necessary to preserve that relative proportion of things, upon which the stability of the entire fabric depends.

There is another aspect in which the subject presses it

self upon the attention. We are wont to admire the arrangements of inanimate nature; but beautiful as these appear, when viewed alone, they are without an object. In the order of nature, there are undeniable indications that this globe was destined to be the abode of living beings. And when we observe the various classes of irrational creatures distributed throughout the earth, the air, and the water, with the fitness of their nature and instincts to the circumstances in which they are placed, the propriety and harmony of the plan is most apparent. But

EVIDENCES OF DESIGN.

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if in preparing the world as the habitation of living creatures the Maker had chosen to limit his power to the creation of insensate brutes, that were utterly incapable of understanding the admirable design and symmetry of his works, could we have discovered the congruity of the plan as we now behold it? If it were a mark of folly in man to construct a sumptuous palace for the accommodation and the unconscious gaze of brutes, can we conceive that such an arrangement would be consonant with the manifested attributes of the Deity? The spacious edifice was erected. It was garnished with beauty, filled with treasures, and “lighted up with unspeakable splendor;" but there was not yet found a suitable occupant. In the creation of man, therefore, a rational and contemplative being, of such excellence as to be capable of comprehending, in some degree, the designs of the Almighty Architect, the plan is complete. Here is exhibited the fullest exemplification of wisdom and benevolence. The work of creation being finished, Infallible Wisdom in the survey pronounced it "very good."

One other remark: Whilst these views are in coincidence with the sacred record, it does not permit us to rest here. It is not more certain that man is the chief inhabitant of the globe, than that external nature is subservient to a great moral scheme of which he is the object. Little interest is felt in the familiar forms of nature around us, although deserving the minutest investigation. Such a study, by showing us how little we know, and how incomprehensible is the Being who formed them, would tend to draw our reluctant minds to him who is the infinite source of all knowledge. But when these common forms of matter organic or inorganic, however humble or repulsive, are regarded as parts of a system that are merging