16 Animal and Machine
The body of an animal may well be compared with some machine, like locomotive engine. Indeed, the animal body is a machine. It is a machine composed of many parts. Each part doing some particular kind of work for which particular kind of structure fits it. And all the parts are dependent on each other and work together to the accomplishment of the total business of the machine.
The locomotive must be provided with fuel, such as coal or wood, or other combustible substance. The consumption of which the furnace *** of the energy of the machine. The animal body must be provided with fuel, which is called “food”, which furnaces similarly the energy of the animal. Oxygen must be provided for the combustion of the fuel in the locomotive and the food in the body. The locomotive is composed of special parts: the fire box for reception and combustion of fuel, the steam pipe for the carriage of steam, the wheels of locomotion, the smokestack for throwing off waste.
The animal body is similarly composed of the parts: the elementary canal for the reception and assimilation of food, the excretory organs for the throwing off the waste matter, the arteries and veins for the carriage of O2 and food holding blood, the legs and wings for the locomotion.
