Book excerpt: Excerpt from A History of the Earth, and Animated Nature, Vol. 4 of 6 As in mechanics the most curious instruments are generally the most complicated, so it is in ana tomy. The body of man presents the greatest-variety upon dissection quadrupeds, less perfectly formed, discover their defects in the simplicity of their consi formation; the mechanism of birds is still less com plex; fishes are furnished with fewer organs still whilst insects, more imperfect than all, seem to fill up the chasm that separates animal from vegetable nature. Of man, the most perfectanimal, there are but three or four species; of quadrnpeda, the kinds are more numerous; birds are more various still fishes yet more; but insects afi'ord so very great a Variety, that they elude the search of the most inquia sitive pursuer. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.