natural history. Most naturalists and chemists divide all natural bodies into three great classes, which they call kingdoms. These are the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal kingdoms.

This great and first division is founded on this consideration, that any plant or vegetable which is produced, which grows, which is organized, which contains a seed, and which produces its like, seems to be a being very distinct and different from a stone or a metal, in which we at most observe only a regular arrangement of parts, but not a true organization, and which contains no seed by which it is capable of reproduction; and another foundation of this division is, that an animal differs no less from a simple plant, by sensation, by the use of its senses, and by the power of voluntary motion which it possesses, while these qualities do not belong to any thing which is merely vegetable.

But notwithstanding these so distinctive marks, philosophers pretend, that this division of natural bodies into classes is only ideal. They affirm, that, by observing nature attentively, we may perceive, that all her productions are connected together by an uninterrupted chain; and that by surveying the several beings, we must be convinced, that any one being differs very little from some other two between which it seems to be placed; so that we may descend from the most perfect animal to the rudest mineral by insensible degrees, and without finding any interval from which a division might be made. The opinions of naturalists are therefore divided upon this subject; and each opinion seems to be founded upon observations, analogies, and reasonings, more or less conclusive.

If we avoid investigating extremes, however, the distinctive marks must be acknowledged sufficiently obvious to justify the triple division above mentioned, and to discriminate the individuals of each.

For a general view of the operations or conduct of nature in these her three kingdoms, see the article Nature. For a particular consideration of them,—(in the animal kingdom), see Zoology, Animal, Brute, Bird, Ornithology, Fish, Comparative Anatomy, and the different animals under their respective names;—(in the vegetable kingdom), Botany, Plant, Agriculture, Vegetation, Defoliation, Frondescence, Gemmation, Fruit, Leaf, Germination, &c. and the different plants under their In what remains of this article we shall consider natural bodies only in a chemical view; that is to say, relatively to the several principles which we obtain in the analysis of those bodies. In the decomposition of all beings truly living, organized, and containing within themselves a feed by which they may be reproduced, such as vegetables and animals, we always obtain an inflammable, fat, or oily substance; and on the contrary, we do not find the smallest trace of this principle in any substance purely mineral, not even in sulphur, which is the most inflammable of all these substances.

On the other side, if we carefully examine and compare with each other the analogous principles obtained from the three kingdoms; such as the saline substances obtained in the analysis of animals, vegetables, and minerals; we shall easily perceive, that all the saline matter which comes from the vegetable or animal kingdom is altered by oil, while all the saline matter which comes from the mineral kingdom is entirely free from oil.

We ought to observe here, that because any matter is found in one or more individuals of any kingdom, we must not therefore conclude, that it belongs to the kingdom of such individuals; for we may be convinced, from a slight observation of nature, that by a thousand combinations, and particular circumstances, substances of quite different classes or kingdoms are daily found mixed and confounded together. Thus, for example, within the earth, and even at great depths, that is, in the region appropriated to minerals, sometimes substances are found evidently oily, such as all bitumens; but we at the same time can prove, and all the observations of natural history prove, that these oily substances are only accidentally within the earth, and that they proceed from the vegetable or animal bodies which have been buried in the earth by some of those great revolutions which have happened from time to time upon the surface of our globe. Also in decomposing several vegetables and animals, salts are obtained; such as common salt, Glauber's salt, and others, which contain nothing oily, and which are consequently matters evidently mineral. But, on the other side, we are certain that these mineral salts are extraneous to the animals and vegetables in which they are found; that they are only introduced into these living bodies, because they happen to be mixed with the matters which have been applied to them as aliments, and that they ought not to be numbered amongst their principles.

The proof of this is, that not only the quantity of these mineral salts is not uniform in animals and vegetables; but also, that not a particle of such salts is contained in some plants and animals equally strong and healthy, and of the same species as those in which these salts have generally been observed.

In the second place, we observe, that oils do only exist in the proximate principles of vegetables and animals; that is, in those of their principles which enter immediately into their composition, when these principles have not been altered by further decompositions, and consequently when they still preserve their animal or vegetable character; for by a natural putrefaction continued during a long time, or by chemical operations, not only the materials of which animal and vegetable bodies are formed may be deprived entirely of oil, but also this oil may itself be entirely destroyed or decomposed. These substances in that state contain nothing by which they can be distinguished from minerals. The earths, for example, of vegetables and animals, when they are deprived, by a sufficient calcination, of all inflammable matter, have been thought to become entirely similar to the calcareous and argillaceous earths found within the globe, and which may be considered as mineral substances, although probably they have been formerly a part of animal and vegetable bodies. See Bones, in the APPENDIX.

Hence we conclude, that, when we consider natural bodies in a chemical view, we ought to divide them into two great classes. The first class is of substances inanimate, unorganized, and the principles of which have a degree of simplicity which is essential to them; these are minerals. The other class contains all those bodies which not only have been distinctly organized, but which also contain an oily matter, which is nowhere to be found in substances which have not made part of animate bodies, and which, by combining with all the other principles of these animate bodies, distinguishes these principles from those of minerals by a less degree of simplicity. This second class contains vegetables and animals. We ought also to remark, that the oil contained in vegetable and animal substances, renders them susceptible of fermentation, properly so called, which cannot by any means take place in any mineral.

We shall now proceed to examine, if, by comparing the principles obtained in the decomposition of vegetables with those obtained in the decomposition of animals, we can find some essential character by which these two kingdoms may be chemically distinguished, in the same manner as we have seen that both of them may be distinguished from minerals. From experiments we indeed learn, that the principles of vegetables differ evidently enough from those of animals; that in general the salting principles of the former are acid, and are transformable in great measure into fixed alkali by incineration, while the principle of the latter are volatile alkalies, or easily changeable into these; that vegetables are much farther removed from putrefaction than animals; lastly, that oils truly animal have a character different from vegetable oils, and are in general more attenuated, or at least more disposed to be attenuated and volatilized. But we must at the same time confess, that these differences are not clear and decisive, like those between these two kingdoms and the mineral kingdom; for we do not find any essential principle, either in animals or in vegetables, which is not also to be found in the other. In some plants, chiefly the cruciform, as much volatile alkali, as little fixed alkali, and as much disposition to putrefy, are found as in animal-matters; and thence we conclude, that if these two great classes of natural bodies differ chemically from each other, this difference proceeds only from the quantities or proportions of their several principles and properties, and not from anything distinct and peculiar; nor is it similar to the manner in which both vegetable and animal substances differ from minerals, namely, by containing an oil, and possessing a fermentable quality. Besides, the degrees of the chemical cal differences betwixt these three great classes of natural bodies are found to be the same, in whatever manner we consider them or compare them together. See Chemistry, paffim.

Books of Kings, two canonical books of the Old Testament, so called because they contain the history of the kings of Israel and Judah, from the beginning of the reign of Solomon, down to the Babylonian captivity, for the space of near 600 years.—It is probable that these books were composed by Ezra, who extracted them out of the public records, which were kept of what passed in that nation.

King's-County, a county of the province of Leinster in Ireland, taking its name from king Philip of Spain, husband to queen Mary. It is bounded on the north by West Meath; on the south by Tipperary and Queen's county, from which it is divided by the Barrow; and part of Tipperary and Galway on the west, from which it is separated by the Shannon. The length of it is about 40 miles, and the breadth about 20. This county was formerly full of bogs, but is now well drained and inhabited. It contains 11 baronies, and sends six members to parliament, viz. two for the county, and four for Philip's-town and Banatour.

King's-Evil. See (the Index subjoined to) Medicine.