If it die it bringeth forth no fruit.
Zoology.
“Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of everything that creepeth upon the earth, there went in two and two [or by sevens of clean according to another account] unto Noah into the ark” (Gen. vii, 8, 9).
The animal kingdom, including insects, etc., comprises more than 1,000,000 species. According to the Bible, two or more of every species from every clime—polar animals accustomed to a temperature of fifty degrees below zero, and tropical, to one hundred degrees above—were brought together and preserved for a year in an ark. If the teachings of Natural History be true, this Bible story is false.
The Bible pronounces unclean and unfit for food the following animals:
“The camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof” (Lev. xi, 4).
“The coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof” (xi, v).
“The hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof” (xi, 6).
“The swine, though he divideth the hoof, and be cloven-footed, yet he cheweth not the cud” (xi, 7).