HARVARD UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY
OF THE
MUSEUM OP COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY
GIFT OF
Wm. Brewster








NOV 19 1919

















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LIFE
ITS LOWER, INTERMEDIATE,
AND HIGHER FORMS:
MANIFESTATIONS OF THE DIVINE WISDOM IN
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF ANIMALS.
BY
PHILIP HENRY GOSSE, F.R.S.
NEW YORK:
ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS,
No. 680 BEOADWAT.
1887.





CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION,
PART L
$ife, ht its Cotoer forms.
CHAPTER I.
Infusoria,
CHAPTER II.
Infusoria—Continued
CHAPTEli HI.
Porifera (Sponges),
CHAPTER IV.
PORIFERA (Sponges)—Continued, . . .
CHAPTER V.
POLYFIFEBA (Polypes),
CHAPTER VI.
Polypifera (Polypes)—Continued,


COKTENTS.
CHAPTER VII.
Polypifera (Polypes)—Continued, .... 68
CHAPTER VIII.
ACALEPHJE (Sea-blubbers), 76
CHAPTER IX.
Acaleph-E (Sea-llubbers)— Continued, .... 83
CHAPTER X.
ECHINODERMATA (Star-fishes), . . . . . 81
CHAPTER XI.
Echinobehuata (Star-fishes)—Continued, ... 99
CHAPTER XII.
Echhiodermata (Star-fishes)—Continued, . .108
CHAPTER XIII.
Helminthia (Intestinal Worms), ..... 116
PAKT II.
%ift, in its Jntermefotate Jforms.
CHAPTER XIV.
Annsuda (Worms), 188
CHAPTER XV.
Mymapoda (Centipedes), 145


CONTENTS. vii
HM
CHAPTER XVI.
Issecta (Insects), 149
CHAPTER XVII.
INSECTA {Insects)—Continued, 158
CHAPTER XVin.
INSECTA (Insects)—Continued, ..... 170
CHAPTER XIX.
Insecta (Insects)—Continued, 178
CHAPTER XX.
ARACHNIDA (S iders, Scorpions, and Mites), . . 184
CHAPTER XXI.
Kotifera (Wheel-bearers), ... . . . 195
CHAPTER XXII.
CRUSTACEA (Crabs and Shrimps), 204
CHAPTER XXin.
CRDSTACEA (Crabs and Shrimps)—Continued, . . 218
CHAPTER XXIV.
Cirbipedia (Barnacles), 228
CHAPTER XXV.
POLYZOA AND TUNICATA, ..... . . . 227
CHAPTER XXVI.
CONCHIPERA AND GASTROPODA, (Shell-JisK), . . . 239


CONTENTS.
PART III.
fife, tit its Picket ^forms.
CHAPTER XXVII. *^
Pisces (Fishes), . . , 251
CHAPTER XXVHt.
PISCES (Fishia)—Continued, 263
CHAPTER XXIX.
Amphibia (Frogs and Toads), . , . 274
CHAPTER XXX.
Reptilia (Reptiles), 285
CHAPTER XXXI.
Reptilia (Reptiles)—Continued 295
CHAPTER XXXII.
Aves (Birds), .; 804
CHAPTER XXXIII.
AVES (Birds)—Continued, ...... 815
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Mammalia (Quadrupeds), 826
CHAPTER XXXV.
Mammalia (Quadrupeds)—Continued, .... 886
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Mammalia (Quadrupeds)—Continued, .... 846
INDEX, 861


LIFE.
INTRODUCTION.
"The works,of the Lord are great;" but we must not
estimate this greatness by their actual dimensions; else a
man would be of less importance than a hippopotamus, and
the Bass Rock would be immensely more valuable than
either. It is a greatness not measurable by rule and line;
not to be determined by bulk and weight; it is to be
estimated by far other qualities,—by the relative import-
ance which the objects bear to each other, by the variety
and complexity of their parts, by the elaborateness with
which they are constructed, by their fitness for the pur-
poses which they are destined to subserve, and especially
by the degree in which they shew forth the power, wisdom,
skill, and goodness of Him who made them for His own
glory. Many of the animals of which we are about to speak
are so minute that the unassisted eye takes no cognisance
of their presence; yet most of these,—perhaps all, if we
were able to investigate them,—are so curiously fashioned,


a
LIFE.
so elaborately constructed, as to deserve to be included in
the category of those works which the adoring Psalmist
says are great.
We propose in this volume to describe the various
phases of animal life, commencing at the foot of the scale,
where we catch the first glimmering of the vital spark,
and tracing it step by step upwards through its various de-
velopments and changes, its forms and functions. But what
is life? There is a mystery couched under that little word
which all the research of philosophers has not been able
to solve. Science, with the experience of ages, with all
the appliances of art, and with all the persevering inge-
nuity and skill that could be brought to bear upon it, has
ardently laboured to lift the veil; but philosophy, and
science, and art, stand abashed before the problem, and
confess it a mystery still. The phenomena, the properties
of life, are readily observable. We take a bird in our
hands; a few moments ago it was full of energy and
animation; it shook its little wings as it hopped from
perch to perch; its eyes glanced brightly, and its throat
quivered as it poured out the thrilling song which de-
lighted us. Now the voice has ceased, the eye is dim, the
limbs are stiffening, and we know that it will move no more.
Chemical changes have already begun to operate upon its
organs; decomposition is doing its work, and soon the
beautiful little bird will be a heap of dust. We say that
its life has gone; but what is it that has gone 1 If we put
the body in the most delicate balance, it weighs not a
grain less than when it was alive; if we measure it, its
dimensions are precisely the same; the scalpel of the
anatomist finds all the constituent parts that made the


CELLS.
3
living being; and what that mighty principle is, the loss
of which has wrought such a change, alike eludes research
and baffles conjecture. We are compelled here to recog-
nise the Great First Cause, and to say, "In Him we live,
and move, and have our being."
The researches of modern science, however, aided by the
inventions which it has brought into requisition, though
they have been unable to throw a single ray of light on the
nature of Life itself, have yet done much to make us
familiar with its phenomena. The microscope, in par-
ticular, has opened to our inquiry what we may call a
world of life, under phases and forms as strange and sur-
prising as they were before unknown. It has enabled us
also to separate and analyse the various substances or
tissues of which the highest forms of animate being are
composed, and to resolve them into their first elements.
Numerous and diverse as are these substances—bone,
cartilage, sinew, nerve, muscle, hair, the teeth, the nails
of the hand, the transparent lens of the eye,—all are
reducible to one kind of structure. This structure is a
cell. All organic substances are made up of cells. The pri-
mary organic cell is a minute, pellucid, globule, invisible
to the naked eye, and containing within it a smaller cell,
called the nucleus, which again contains a still more mi-
nute granule, called the nucleolus, or little nucleus. Even the
highest animals, in the early development of the embryo,
are composed entirely of nucleated cells, which afterwards
assume the forms peculiar to the various tissues. In the
lowest classes of animals, their more simple bodies consist
almost entirely of cells of this kind. If we take a minute
portion of the gelatinous flesh of a medusa or a zoophyte,


4
LIFE.
and crush it between two plates of glass bsrieath the
microscope, the substance is presently resolved into a
multitude of oval pellucid granules, each of which for a
short time maintains a spontaneous motion, sometimes
rotating upon itself, but more commonly jerking or
quivering irregularly. These are the primary cells, and
their motion is, doubtless, to be attributed to the presence
of certain hairs, called cilia; for we cannot believe that it
is at all connected with currents in the fluid that surrounds
them, to which it has sometimes been referred.
Cilia play an important part in the economy of all
animals. Even in the highest forms, many of the inter-
nal surfaces are furnished with them, and nearly all the
motions which do not depend upon muscular contraction
are produced by them. In the lower tribes, especially
those which are aquatic, the office of these organs becomes
more important and more apparent, until in the very
lowest we find all movement originating with them.
The form of these essential organs is that of slender,
tapering hairs, commonly arranged in rows, resembling the
eyelashes, whence their name. The base of each hair is
attached to the surface of the body to which it belongs, its
whole length besides being free.* During life each cilium
maintains an uniform motion of a waving or lashing kind,
bending down in one direction and then straightening itself
again. This movement is not performed by all the cilia
together or in unison, but in rapid succession : for example,
the instant after one has begun to bend, the next begins,
then the noxt, and so on; so that before the first has re-
* Perhaps it would be most correct to consider a cilium as formed by the
wall of a cell drawn out to a fine point.





PART I.
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.





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Infusoiiit


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Ilil'ilAI" ill


CHAPTER I.
Infusoria.
The most minute and the most simple of all living beings,
so far as the powers of the best microscopes have yet
reached, closely resembles such a ciliated cell as we have
been describing. It has been called the Twilight Monad
(Monas crepusculum); so named because it is considered to
be, as it were, the unit of existence—the point where the
glimmering spark of life first emerges out of the darkness
of nonentity. It consists of a tiny speck of pellucid mat-
ter, rounded in form, and supposed, from its movements
and from analogy, to be furnished with a single cilium,
by the lashing action of which it rows itself through the
water. No words can convey an adequate idea of the
size of an animal so minute as this; but the imagination
may be assisted by supposing a number of them to be
arranged side by side in contact with each other, like the
beads of a necklace, when twelve thousand of them would
go comfortably within the length of a single inch.* Eight
* An esteemed lecturer is reported to have lately said that the cheese-mite
is an animal of middling size in existence; in other words, that there are
creatures as much smaller than it as there are larger. This is not strictly
correct. The largest animal known is the Rorqual (Balanoptera ioSps), which


10 LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
hundred thousand millions would be contained in a cubio
inch; and as they are found ' swarming in water to such
a degree as that each is separated from its neighbours
by a space not greater than its own diameter, a single
drop of such water has been estimated to contain a thou-
sand millions of living active beings. If we take a bunch
of leaves, of the common sage, for example, or a few twigs
of hay, and, tying them into a bundle, suspend them in a
jar of water, allowing the contents to remain untouched,
but exposed to the air, some interesting results will
follow. If we examine it on the second day, we shall
find a sort of scum covering the surface, and the whole
fluid becoming turbid, and slightly tinged with green. If
now we take, with the point of a quill or a pin, a minute
drop of the liquid, and examine it with a good microscope
under a magnifying power of about two hundred diameters,
we discover the water to be swarming with animal life.
Immense multitudes of minute round or oval atoms are
present, which move rapidly with a gliding action. These
are animals of the genus Manas just described. Among
them we shall probably see other bodies still more minute,
resembling short lines, most of which are seen to be com-
posed of more or fewer bead-like bodies, united into a chain.
These occasionally bend themselves, wriggle nimbly, and
effect a rather rapid progression in this manner. The
scum, or transparent pellicle, is found to be composed of
countless millions of these latter, congregated about as
is about 100 feet in length. The smallest is the Twilight Monad above men-
tioned, whose dimensions are 12000th of an inch. It is evident that tbo
liiiddle term between these extremes is $d of an inoh, which is about the
length of the common house-fly, which may be therefore considered as an
animal of medium size in creation.


INFUSORIA.
11
thickly as they can lie, into patches. They constitute the
genus Vibrio. Several may be seen among them briskly
wriggling along, which resemble a little coil of spiral wire.
Such forms bear the generic appellation of Spirillum*
As all infusions of vegetable or animal substances are
found to be speedily filled with animals resembling these,
in great variety, though not always of the same species,
the circumstance has been seized by naturalists to afford
a name by which this class of beings should be distin-
guished. They have been therefore called Infusoria, or
infusory animalcules; a very extensive grcup, and one
which, in a more advanced state of our knowledge, it may
be found desirable to divide, since it includes animals of
very different grades of organisation. Those of which we
have spoken are among the simplest of these forms: wo
shall now describe others of a higher place in the scale,
and more attractive in their appearance and in their
habits. Every day during which the infusion is allowed
to stand, it will display fresh forms, and generally those
which appeared most abundantly in the earlier stages will
be found successively to die out, and be replaced by other
species. The more highly organised kinds will usually
be discovered at the later periods.
But there is a very beautiful form, and one which can-
not fail to possess great interest for the young microscopi-
cal student, which commonly occurs pretty early. Perhaps
we shall see some of the stalks of the macerated hay, or
floating portions of the semi-decomposed leaves, clothed
with what appears to the naked eye to be a very delicate
* Recent researches, however, render it probable that these are the earliest
stages of Intestinal Worms.


12
LIFE, IN ITS LOWEU FORMS.
white mucor, or mouldiness. Such a fragment placed in
the "live-box" of the microscope will not fail to present
many groups of one of the most attractive of all the
Infusoria, the lovely genus Vorlicella. (See Plate I. Fig. 1.)
A little bell of glassy transparency is affixed by a sort of
nipple to a slender filament or stem, eight or ten times its
own length. The bell has a broad and thick rim or lip,
within which, on the two opposite sides, are apparently two
pairs of cilia,* which are sometimes withdrawn, sometimes
protruded, and are vibrated with a rapid snatching motion
(a). The result of this is very curious, for when any
atom in the water is drawn near the bell-mouth, it is not
driven away or drawn in, but is whirled round in a con-
tinuous circle above either pair. This gyration may be
frequently seen, even when the cilia are so far withdrawn
as to be invisible. 1
Within the glassy bell are seen many pellucid bodies,
which have been supposed to be numerous stomachs;
these are continually changing their sizes, forms, and
relative positions; since they are ' ot defined vesicles, but
simply excavations of the common mass of gelatinous
flesh, produced by the escape of the food from the open
extremity of the gullet. Besides these globules, there are
scattered granules, a contractile bladder, and a band-like
dark organ, which is called the nucleus, and which appears
to possess the reproductive function.'
In general, the animal floats loosely through the water,
the thread fully extended, but rarely so straight as not
* The cilia are really placed in a complete circle around the bell-mouth; and
the appearance above mentioned is merely an optical illusion, dependent on
the relation of these parts of the circle to the eye, as viewed in perspective.^


INFUSORIA.
13
to shew slight undulations; the basal extremity of the
stem is affixed to the support; and the bell slowly roams
about, with the length of its tether for a radius, now
turning its open mouth, uow its sides, and now its foot
to the eye.
On any shock, such as a tap with the nail on the stage
or "live-box,"—instantly, with the quickness of thought,
so that the eye can scarcely trace the motion, the long
stem is contracted into a beautiful spiral (b), suddenly
bringing the bell close to the point of adhesion, when it
immediately, but gradually (e), uncoils to its full length.
It does not seem alarmed by tapping, except when fully
extended; for it we tap the box all the time it is unfold-
ing, it does not shrink again, until it has reached its full
extension, but then it does instantly. It frequently, how-
ever, springs back again, when partially uncoiled, of its
own accord, several times in succession. Hence we may
presume that the spiral contraction is the result of alarm;
but that though alarm may be felt from the bell's contact
with substances in the water, or from currents, &c, at any
time, a shock or tap produces this effect only when the
stem is tense, and capable of vibration. The whole of the
actions of this little animal are very sprightly and elegant.
The ordinary increase of the animals of this class is by
self-division. In the Vorticellm it takes place in the fol-
lowing manner:—One of the full-grown bells begins to
alter its form, becoming first globular (6), then a flattened
sphere (c), presently a slight notch or depression is observed
in the upper part of the outline, and it soon becomes
apparent that this depression is a constriction extending
all round, which gradually becomes deeper and more


14
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
marked (,i). As the two divisions become more separate,
each assumes au oval form, united at length to its fellow
only at the base (e). At this time the motion of the cilia
is plainly visible, forming a circle in each within the
body, near the summit. As the process goes on, the con-
nexion between the two is reduced to a mere point, and
they become capable of separate motion, so far as to
diverge and look in opposite directions; the point of
union being the common stem (/). At this stage we
may observe that the bell which is destined to remain is
open at the top, within which the ciliary waves are chas-
ing each other in continuous wheels, the other bell being
closed at the summit.
But on the latter, which is ultimately to be thrown off,
a new and highly interesting phenomenon appears. The
cilia, which before the division had played around the
mouth, have become obliterated, probably by absorption;
the orifice at that extremity has closed up permanently,
for this is to be the base of the new animal; and a new
bell-mouth and a new wheel of cilia, are to be formed at
the opposite end, which at present remains attached to the
common stem. The first indication we can detect of this
new formation is a very slight motion in the water, a little
quivering around what we must as yet call the basal
part. Presently there appear waved hairs, which seem
very flexible, and the motion of which resembles that of a
fringe of loose silk moved through water, an action very
different from the regular waves of perfect cilia. These
waving hairs increase rapidly in length, and in the vigour
and rapidity of their undulations, which gradually become
decidedly rotatory, producing at length strong currents in


INFUSORIA.
15
the surrounding water, and imparting a tremulous motion
to the whole bell.
It is evident now that the separation is imminent, for
the minute point of connexion cannot long withstand the
rushing current of these rotatory paddles. At length the
bell suddenly shoots away (c/), gliding with great swiftness
through the water, borne by its numerous paddles, and
whirls about for a while in a headlong, giddy manner.
At length it chooses a place of rest, becomes stationary,
fixes itself by that end which had formerly been the
mouth, but is now closed up, and presently begins to rise
by the development of a slender stalk, which, though
minute at first, quickly increases in length, until it attains
the original dimensions.
But another mode of increase, yet more singular, has
been found to prevail in these creatures. At certain
periods the Vorticella closes its ciliated mouth, and passes
into a sort of chrysalis state, taking a globular or bladder-
like form, with a distinct double wall. After remaining a
while in this encysted condition, pencils of slender fibres
shoot out from two or more points, each fibre terminated
by a minute globule. This form has been often detected
by the older observers, without a suspicion that it was but
a stage in the metamorphoses of Vorticella. By Ehrenberg
it was constituted a distinct genus, under the name oiAcineta.
According to Dr Stein, who first made known the true
nature and relations of these forms, the Acinetc e "have no
mouth; it is, indeed, difficult, from the toughness of their
tunic, to effect a rupture; no food or stomach sacs, like-
wise, can be found in them, their substance being homo-
geneous, granular, soft, and containing, besides its very


1C
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
fine granules, some larger globules, probably of oil (fat), a
contractile sac anteriorly, and an elliptic discoid granular
nucleus, often accompanied by another smaller, finely
granular, discoid globule, well defined.
"The larger nucleus is the one destined to undergo the
first change; this it does by the development of fine cilia
around its periphery, which actively vibrate, and so cause
its rotation. Whilst this goes on, it increases in size, ad-
vances towards the anterior of the Acineta, which takes on
active contractions, and thereby ultimately ruptures its
integument, allowing the embyro (ciliated nucleus) to
escape. On its emergence, the embyro swims away rapidly
by means of its cilia; -what further changes it undergoes
are yet to be discovered.
"However, the part the Acineta body has to perform is
not completed by the production of the one embryo; but
the same process has to be repeated again and again, until
its formative granular mass is used up, when the Acineta
becomes a contracted, shrivelled, empty sac, seated upon
the persistent stalk.
"After an emission of an embryo, the Acineta body
contracts strongly; some of its diverging fibres shorten,
whilst others are entirely withdrawn. This contracted
condition, after lasting for a time, relaxes; the Acineta
resumes its usual movements; the fibres spread out
anew, moving about as usual in various directions; and
it finally regains its original characters, save that it is
smaller, and, instead of a smooth, even surface, it has its
tunic thrown into folds or undulations. The spot from
whence the embyro escaped soon becomes imperceptible.'"
* Condensed from Stein, in Fritchard'e Hist, of Infus. Animate, p. 537.
(Ed. 1852.)


CHAPTER II.
Infusoria.
Continued.
This brief sketch of the history of the Vorticella will serve
to illustrate that of the whole class of Infusoria' as the
facts, at least the earlier ones, with slight modifica-
tions, are common to all. The round bodies resem-
bling beads, which we mentioned as scattered in the
interior of the bell, are characteristic of the whole of
these animals. Professor Ehrenberg considers them to
be so many stomachs, connected either with the com-
mon mouth, or with an intestinal canal which runs
through the body. To this conclusion he came by pro-
secuting a series of curious and ingenious experiments.
By mixing coloured substances, such as carmine or indigo,
with the water in which the animalcules were living, he
found that they readily imbibed them, and that the
colouring matter was presently accumulated in these in-
ternal vesicles, which then appeared crimson or blue,
according to the pigment employed. Hence he applied
the name Polygastrica to the class, a term which would be
as appropriate as it is significant were it quite certain
that his conclusions legitimately follow from his premises.
But later naturalists have doubted that these vesicles are
B


18
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
stomachs at all, nor have they been able to discover any
such common tube as the learned professor describes.
The true explanation of the phenomena appears to be,
that the gullet terminates by an open extremity in the
midst of the gelatinous flesh that occupies the general
cavity of the body; and that the food, as swallowed,
passes in pellets, enveloped in mucus, into this flesh,
having assumed globular forms from the rotation pro-
duced by the lining cilia of the gullet. These pellets are
partly absorbed, and partly expelled by a proper orifice.
There is another curious organ found in a large number
of these animals, the office of which is even more puzzling.
It is commonly known as the contractile bladder. If we
are watching one of these animalcules, a Paramecium, for
example, we see in a particular part of the body a circular
space perfectly clear and colourless, which gradually en-
larges until it takes the appearance of a distended globoso
bladder. When arrived at its utmost dimensions it sud-
denly contracts to a point, and presently begins to enlarge,
until it reaches its former size and appearance, when it
again contracts as before. This alternation of distensions
and contractions goes on continuously; the latter taking
place at regularly measured intervals, perhaps of about a
minute. We feel assured, f/om numerous observations,
that the bladder is filled by some fluid which gradually
percolates into it, and that this is discharged by the
periodic contraction; but what is the nature of this fluid,
and what relation the process sustains to the general
economy, we are ignorant. Our own opinion is, that the
organ, with its accessories, is the first rudimentary form
of the urinary system of higher animals.


INFUSORIA.
19
The external organs of these animals are few and simple.
In all, except the lowest forms, the mouth is surrounded
by rows of strong cilia, by the vigorous vibrations of
which currents are perpetually formed in the water,
which bring to the entrance of the stomach whatever
particles of matter suitable for food there may be float-
ing about. Besides these, the whole surface of the body
is, in many species, clothed with delicate cilia, which
act as paddles to row the animal rapidly along. A few of
the more highly organised genera are furnished with
bristles, styles, or hooks, which appear to be merely cilia
more than usually developed and deprived of vibratile
power. They serve as instruments of locomotion, for
crawling, or climbing about aquatic plants. In many
species we see a red speck, which is probably an organ of
sight in a very rudimental condition; perhaps possessing
a sensibility to the presence of light without distinct vision.
Some of the members of the class are protected by a
shell formed of silex, or the substance of flint. These
shells may be considered as indestructible, and they are
found in a fossil state, the memorials of Infusoria which
existed in former ages in multitudes that defy calculation,
and almost exceed belief. There is in Bohemia a moun-
tain composed of a substance which, from its use in the
arts, has long been known by the name of polishing slate.
Professor Ehrenberg has foimd this substance to be en-
tirely composed of the shells of fossil Infusoria, the genera
and species of which can even yet be distinguished. Of
these, he computes that 41,000,000,000 are contained in
every cubic inch of a stratum fourteen feet thick. On
the shores of certain lakes in Sweden a fine powder is


20
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
found in large quantities resembling flour in appearance.
The natives of these districts have long been in the habit
of collecting this, and of using it, under the name of
bergmehl, or mountain-meal, as an article of food. This,
also, the microscope reveals to be composed of the remains
of incalculable millions of shelled Infusoria.
Some interesting examples of a protecting case of dif-
ferent structure are found in the family Tintinnidce. They
are animals allied to the Vorticella, but inhabiting a
transparent tube, open at the top, of a gelatinous or mem-
branous texture. This case is affixed to the stems of
water-plants, sometimes by its base, when it is erect, at
others prostrate, adhering by its side, and occasionally
placed at the tip of a footstalk, like a tiny handbell turned
upside down. The animalcule protrudes to a consider-
able distance from the margin of its glassy cell, unfolding
a ciliated mouth like that described in the preceding
chapter; but on the least disturbance it shrinks, a little
shapeless ball, down to the very bottom of its tube.
Sometimes two animals dwell in the same tube, and their
amicable movements are viewed with ease through the
transparent walls of their miniature crystal palace.
Those who have never looked through a microscope
can scarcely form an idea of the beauty of these little
animals. Engravings of many of them, and technical
descriptions, are, indeed, to be found in published works;
but of their brilliant transparency, their high refractive
power, resembling that of flint-glass, their sudden ana
sprightly motions, their general elegance and delicacy, and
the appearance of intelligence which they display, neither
books nor engravings will give any adequate conception.


INFUSORIA. 21
On the surface of stagnant ponds may often be seen,
especially in spring, a stratum of what looks like a bright
green powder. If a small quantity of this be taken up
and examined, many curious and beautiful forms will be
discovered. A large portion of the substance will pro-
bably consist of different species of the genus Euglena—little
active creatures, somewhat resembling fishes in shape, of
a rich green hue, with a large red eye. Among them we
may find what is sometimes called the High-priest's
Breastplate (Gonium pectorale), consisting of sixteen oval
green masses, disposed regularly in a transparent shell of
Bquare form, like emeralds set in a plate of the purest
glass. Another brilliant casket of gems is the Pandorina
morum (Plate I. fig. 2), a species which we have taken in
the neighbourhood of London. It is a crystal globe en-
closing about thirty globose animals of a rich green hue,
from each of which proceeds a long, whip-like proboscis,
about as long as the radius of the globe. By means of
these filaments it proceeds rather quickly, rolling over in an
irregular manner as it goes. Its appearance is very rich
and beautiful, particularly when the light is transmitted,
as it sometimes is, through the interstices of the animal-
cules, and gleams through their dark-green bodies. The
newly-invented paper-weights, consisting of balls of solid
glass, in which are imbedded some beautiful coloured
objects, will give an idea of this creature.
Many kinds are interesting from the close resemblance
in form which they display to other well-known objects,
animate or inanimate. The Volvox (fig. 3) rolls majesti-
cally through the water, revolving regularly on its axis
like an artificial globe; and as it is of greatly superior


23
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
dimensions to most others of the class, we may compare it
to the planet Jupiter surrounded, by a host of moons.*
The Stentors, also, are of comparatively large size, being
distinctly visible to the naked eye; these resemble trum-
pets in form. One beautiful species, hence named
Trachelocerca olor, charms the eye by its close resemblance
to a swan. It has a plump, rounded body, a slender-
pointed tail, and a very long and graceful neck, the
motions of which, thrown into arching curves, and pro-
truded in every direction, give the most lively represen-
tation of the elegant waterfowl after which it is named.
Indeed, in one species of this genus, T. biceps, we may see
the living representative of the celebrated bird usually
considered to be as scarce as the lost Dodo itself—the
swan with two necks.
The genus Amceba has long been celebrated among
microscopists, from its power of constantly changing its
form, whence it is sometimes called the "Proteus." It
consists of a mass of clear, jelly-like matter, with a few
granules, two or three of the supposed stomachs, and a
contractile bladder. But its peculiarity is that which we
have just mentioned. It is ever altering its outline; and
to so great a degree, that not only are no two ever found
alike, but the same specimen does not retain the same
shape for two successive minutes. Here a point projects
and gradually pushes out more and more, while a sinuosity
* Many of tho organisms which, principally on account of their spontaneous
movements, were considered as animals, when Professor Ehrenberg published
his elaborate work, "Die Infusions-thierchen," are now generally admitted to
be plants. And there are not a few who contend that the beautiful Gonium
and Volvox must be removed from the domain of the zoologist also. As this
position is not, however, quite established, their elegance pleads for them to
remain for the present where we have put them.


INFUSORIA.
23
is forming in some other part; one portion is contracting,
another enlarging; so that the only idea that can be
given of its shape, is by comparing it to the figure of a
country upon a map, which is perpetually transformed
into that of some other country.
These are but a few examples of the variety of form
which this curious class of animals presents to us : it re-
mains now only to give, to those who may be desirous of
examining them for themselves, a few instructions to aid
their researches. A good microscope is, of course, indis-
pensable; if the study is intended to be pursued scienti-
fically, a compound achromatic, with magnifying powers
ranging from fifty to five hundred diameters, must be
employed; but very much entertainment, and a good
idea of many of the forms, may be obtained with an
ordinary simple microscope of three powers. The pene-
trating and defining properties of a microscope are of more
importance than mere enlargement.
If we were asked where specimens are to be obtained,
we might reply, almost everywhere, provided water be
present: but even in the air they have been lately
detected by the eminent Prussian professor. In ditches
and ponds, in the trenches of meadows, in the ruts of
highroads, in marshes, in lakes and rivers, in estuaries, and
even in the sea, various species may at almost all times be
found. Stagnant waters, especially such as are covered
with a thick scum, contain some species in immense
abundance, but these are generally of the simplest struc-
ture: little hollows in boggy ground, especially where a
red sediment betokens the presence of oxide of iron, fre-
quently contain species of great rarity and beauty; but


24
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
clear abiding water, in which the more delicate aquatic
plants grow, and particularly when covered with duck-
weed, will be found the most productive resource both for
number and variety.
The mode of collecting them is very simple. The water
must be dipped up in a phial, which may be tied to the
end of a walking-stick; a moment's examination of its
contents with a pocket-lens will determine whether the
water is worth carrying home. If no moving particles are
seen, another dip may be taken elsewhere; should this
likewise prove valueless, another locality should be sought.
When brought home, a small drop may be taken at
random, and placed in what microscopical observers call an
aquatic box or live-box; a small fragment of duckweed-root,
or the stem of some slender water-plant, put in also,
will aid the search: this should then be examined with a
low power at first, the observer proceeding to the use of
higher powers for the closer examination of particular
specimens.
Should any of our readers who may possess a micro-
scope, or access to one, be disposed to investigate these
minims of existence, we shall be disappointed if they do
not find objects which will not only please their fancy and
inform their understanding, but also give them fresh and
unexpected ideas of the ways of Him whose glory is no
less displayed in the construction of an animalcule than in
the creation of a solar system.








v ..... ..>, v ..
IT . . \" .1 t V •'' . - .
'St < "I' t .' l,' . - I,
.'•'•!l '»» \k.. '..'
\- .u:! '.-' f .-.!-.. I' .'. ' •
:','f; - - '.k:*".> i • --.' sv •
.» .. .- J". '...I'mm'-V, til ' i J,] .. ' t' *
,,"Kr 1> '-' c:.. » i . ; 'r -'
'. i.: km i j.>* kn, i J'... -'!
'» f .!•:.•> cf ii o. •1 v...
rt! .- . > ;.-:ine;i'i i r.i .J. A ''• '.,nt'li,'
•mi'S; full -., c '.- i vi.\.-ur; :'>- -
'•» • .. - ; rt ' -tvi' -. .' p. "y : . -i.* .".i;
i ,M pec'.a- f in.y; cxkic". ..
.•>.. k.•.-:•- ; iHn. ir. stii.v, .utoil'L.oDC i.
by a wayv.rd wi-i.
IVi'i, such a creature a.-i thn is "n a , r -- .
t;n-te :c (iniroah but such as p. - : tin* :>'
L:t ei;um rato a few familiar :• .•-t-. - -
u?l -inn crocodite. Is this an animal?' '.v
)"i answer. The serpent, thr fir*. '.. .' .





CHAPTER IIL
Porifera (Sponges).
What is an animal 1 Nothing seems easier than to
answer this question. Our thoughts in a moment recall
the image of the stately horse shaking his neck of thunder,
and projecting columns of vapour through his translucent
nostrils; or the painted tiger crouching in the jungle,
awaitingin lithe readiness the approachof some unconscious
antelope to make his mortal spring; or the trembling
antelope itself, as it pants, and struggles, and groans
beneath the fangs of its merciless foe. Nothing appears
simpler than to define an animal. A being with head, and
body, and limbs; full of energy and vigour; possessed of
various instincts; master of many ingenious contrivances
all helpful to its peculiar economy; executing various
movements; manifesting intelligence in different degrees,
and governed by a wayward will.
True, such a creature as this is an animal; but are
there no animals but such as possess these characteristics i
Let us enumerate a few familiar instances. Look at the
ferocious crocodile. Is this an animal ?" Without doubt,"
you answer. The serpent, the frog, the mackerel?


26
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
"Without doubt," you still reply. The worm, the cater-
pillar, the suail, the oyster 1 "Yes," you say still, perhaps
hesitating a little upon the last, as its energy and vivacity
are confessedly not great. Still, probably, you have been
accustomed to consider an oyster as an animal, though one
in which the animal life is in about its lowest condition;
and you think you have got through your catechism with-
out any great difficulty. Stay: we must ask you to
descend with us a step or two lower than the oyster. You
have, perhaps, seen on the sandy shore in summer the
flat cakes of motionless, colourless jelly, commonly called
sea-blubber: are these animals? If you have seen them
in the sea, possibly you will consider the spasmodio
contraction of the circular disk at regular periods as an
indication of life, though you begin to see that in such a
mass of clear jelly as this, without limbs, without organs,
without senses, without intelligence, without a power of
governing its movements, we have departed somewhat
considerably from such a standard of animal nature as the
horse or the tiger presented.
But let us look further yet. The brilliant-hued Sea
Anemone that adheres to the rock, and expands its lovely
fringed disk like the blossom of a flower,—what is this?
People call it an animal-flower; but what is it, animal or
flower? Probably you are at last puzzled; you are
inclined to think it a sort of marine flower, though its
fleshy substance, and its shrinking when touched, produce
some misgivings in your decision. Well, try again. In
the baskets of dried sea-weed whioh are exposed for sale in
watering-places, you have often seen the papery leaves of
pale-brown hue, or feathery plumes of pure white, mingled


SPONGES.
27
with the crimson and green specimens. You have never
doubted that these are all sea-weeds, that is plants, alike.
And yet if you saw these growing on their native rocks,
plant-like as they are in form, you might discern, on careful
examination with a pocket lens, that from various points
of their surface tiny star-like circles of radiating points
were protruding, that possessed spontaneous motions, and
exhibited a shrinking sensitiveness to danger, and a power
of seizing and swallowing food; and you would suspend, if
not alter, your judgment.
If now, we ask, What is an animal 1 you will confess
that the answer is not so easy as it appeared at first; still
there remain some characters common to all the beings
that we have glanced at, and these we may perhaps con«
elude to be inseparable from, and distinctive of, animal
existence. Of these characters, the most constant and the
best defined are the power of spontaneous motion, and the
possession of a stomach, or at least an enclosed cavity, in
which other substances are converted into nutriment.
With regard to the former of these characters, what
shall we say to the Sensitive plants of the tropics, the
pinnate leaflets of which fold together, and the jointed
leaf-ribs fall, on the rude touch of a foreign body 1 What
to the plant called Venus' Fly-trap (JDioncea muscipula),
found in the marshes of North America, whose broad
two-lobed leaves, armed with strong teeth standing up
from the surface, ordinarily lie widely expanded; but
when an insect touches their hairy centres, instantly fly up
like a rat-gin, the teeth cross each other, and the offend-
ing fly is pierced, and held a prisoner until it dies 1 What
to the Gorachand of Bengal (Hedysarum gyrans), whose


28 LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
actions, still more unaccountable than those just noticed,
are thus described by the younger Linnaeus 1 "No sooner
had the plants raised from seed acquired their ternate
leaves, than they began to be in motion in every direc-
tion: this movement did not cease during the whole
course of their vegetation, nor were they observant of any
time, order, or direction : one leaflet frequently revolved,
while the other on the same petiole was quiescent; some-
times a few leaflets only were in motion, then almost all
of them would be in movement at once; the whole plant
was very seldom agitated, and that only during the first
year." These motions, which are little dancings or start-
ings to and fro, are much more lively in the native country
of the plant than in our best stoves. What is curious is,
that if the leaflets be held between the fingers for a short
time, and thus prevented from moving, immediately on
their release they dance with renewed rapidity, as if to
make up for the lost time.
All these, however, are examples of motions in the organs
of plants; but there are not wanting instances of sponta-
neous locomotion. The Oscillatorice, a tribe of minute
plants among the Conferva, derive their name from the
spontaneous movements which they display. They oscillate
to the right and left, and shift their position with consi-
derable rapidity, often travelling ten times their own length
in a few hours, and that when every precaution has been
taken to prevent agitation of the water in which they
grow, and to exclude the influence of external agents.
The motion of these vegetable tubes has a writhing,
twisting, undulating, creeping character; almost identical
with that of animal movement.


BPONGES.
29
The necessity of a stomachal cavity to an animal is a
more precise distinction, and appears to be the only one.
Yet even this is not without obscurity. The Hydra, when
turned inside out, like a glove, absorbs its nutriment as
well as before, though the surface which is its stomach
now was before external, and vice versa. And Dr Lindley
remarks, in speaking of vegetable organisms, "that it
is impossible to say that the whole interior of a living
independent cell is not a stomach." *
It will now be readily admitted that the limits between
the animal and vegetable kingdoms are exceedingly indis-
tinct and subtile, and that these two grand divisions of
organised being merge into each other by shadowy and
almost imperceptible gradations. In fact, it is more than
doubtful whether there are any boundaries at all.
In a former chapter we described beings of excessive)
minuteness, but of energetic motions, most of which hava
been universally allowed to be animals; yet a considerable
number of those which were included by the illustrious
Ehrenberg in the same class, are now pretty generally
* "As is well known, all the older criteria by which animals were separated,
from plants have long since been regarded invalid; and some of those which in
late years have been regarded among the most constant, have, quite recently,
been declared as equally unsound. Cellulose has been shewn to be a component
of animal as well as of vegetable structures, and K'olliker has insisted that some
forms which have neither mouth nor stomach, but consist of a homogeneous
masg, are true animals. If these premises are correct, nothing will remain, as
I conceive, for a distinctive characteristic, but voluntary motion. This when
positive, is indubitable evidence of any given form being of an animal character;
and it must remain for each individual observer to determine what is, and
what is not, voluntary action, in each particular case. Moreover, even should
Kdlliker's view of a stomachless animal prove correct, the inverse condition of
a true stomachal cavity being present must, I think, be regarded as positive/
evidence of the animal nature of the form in question; for this must always
be a distinctive characteristic of the two kingdoms when present."—(Dr
Bunutt, in Sieoold'i "Comparative Anatomy," p. 18.)


30
LIFE, IN 1T3 LOWEll FORMS.
considered to be plants, in spite of their movements, and
constitute the order Diatomacece. But what is stranger
still is, that there are some forms which are animals at
one period of their lives and plants at another! The
Green Microglene (Microglena monadina), a beautiful oval
monad not uncommon in our ditches, is declared by Kiitz-
ing to be produced from a threadlike plant, which ho
names Ulothrix gonata. From the cells of which the thread
is made up, the minute vegeto-animals are discharged in
numbers (See Plate II. fig. 1 a), and assume the form
of an oval green monad, with a red eye-speck, a transpa-
rent colourless mouth, and a delicate proboscis or cilinm
(b). They swim energetically, with a vibratory rotation on
the long axis; increase by self-division (c) ; and at length,
by transverse constriction and elongation (d), grow into
jointed vegetable threads (e), the lowest joint still retain-
ing the eye-speck.
This interesting phenomenon, the reality of which has
been ascertained by Kutzing beyond all possibility of doubt,
dissipates the idea of any supposed line of demarcation
between the organic kingdoms of nature; and proves that
the disputes which have been so pertinaciously maintained
between zoologists and botanists on their boundary ques-
tion, have been concerning words rather than things.
Among the organisms the position of which has been
most debated, are some very familiar to us, from our
habitual employment of some of the species for domestic
purposes. They constitute the extensive and widely-
distributed class Poeifera, or the Sponges, the history of
which forms the subject of this chapter. We shall not
enumerate the names or record the opinions of the contro-


SrONGES.
31
versialists who have contended for scientific dominion over
these bodies; naturalists of the highest eminence have
been arrayed on each side. We shall content ourselves
with giving the judgment of Dr Johnston, the learned
historian of British Sponges, and one well worthy of
being listened to with respect; and we quote him the
rather because his decisions, while they tersely exhibit the
real merits of the case, have so yielded to accumulated
evidence as to shift from the side first advocated to the
opposite.
When the "History of the British Zoophytes" was
published, the author omitted the Sponges, and gave the
following summary of his reasons for so doing :—" If they
are not the productions of Polypes, the zoologist who retains
them in his province must contend that they are, indivi-
dually, animals; an opinion to which I cannot assent,
seeing that they have no animal structure or individual
organs, and exhibit no one function usually supposed to
be characteristic of the animal kingdom. Like vegetables,
- they are permanently fixed; like vegetables, they are non-
irritable; their movements, like those of vegetables, are
extrinsical and involuntary; their nutriment is elaborated
in no appropriated digestive sac; and, like cryptogamous
vegetables, or algae, they usually grow and ramify in forms
determined by local circumstances; and if they present
some peculiarities in the mode of the imbibition of their
food and in their secretions, yet even in these they evince
a nearer affinity to plants than any animal whatever." *
A few years later, however, the learned writer published
his "History of British Sponges," in the introduction to
*Brit. Zooph., p. 29.


32
LIFE, IN 118 LOWER FORMS.
which he elaborately examines the whole question, con-
cluding with the following verdict:—" Few, on examining
the green Spongilla, would hesitate to pronounce it a vege-
table, a conclusion which the exacter examination of the
naturalist seems to have proved to be correct; and when
we pass on from it to an examination of the calcareous and
siliceous marine genera, the impression is not so much
weakened but that we can still say with Professor Owen,
'that if a line could be drawn between the animal and
vegetable kingdoms, the Sponges should be placed upon
the vegetable side of that line.' We shall possibly, how-
ever, arrive at an opposite conclusion if, proceeding in our
inquiry, we follow the siliceous species, insensibly gliding,
on the one hand, into the fibro-corneous Sponge, filled
with its mucilaginous fishy slime, and, on the other, into
the fleshy Tethija, in whose oscula the first signs of an
obscure irritability shew themselves. Sponges, therefore,
appear to be true zoophytes; and it imparts additional
interest to their study to consider them, as they probably
are, the first matrix and cradle of organic life, and exhibit-
ing before us the lowest organisations compatible with its
existence." *
Many of our readers are probably cognisant of only one
kind of Sponge,—the soft, plump, woolly, pale-brown
article, so indispensable in our dressing-rooms; or, at the
most, two, if they chance to have noticed the large-pored,
coarser sort with which grooms wash carriages. It may
surprise such persons to be informed that the streams and
shores of the British Isles produce sixty or seventy distinct
species of Sponge; and that every coast, especially in the
* Brit. Sponges, p. 68.


SPONGES.
tropical seas, where they are very numerous and varied,
has species peculiar to itself.
A Sponge, as it is used in domestic economy, is merely
a skeleton: it is the solid frame-work which in life sup-
ported the softer flesh. This skeleton is composed of one or
two of the following substances,—flint, lime, and a peculiar
horny matter. The first two are crystallised, and take the
appearance of spicular needles either simple or compound,
varying greatly as to their length, thickness, shape, and
curvature, but constant in form in the same species. The
horny matter, of which the common domestic Sponge affords
an example, is arranged in slender, elastic, translucent,
tough, solid fibres, united to each other irregularly at
various points, and in every direction, and thus forming
an open netted mass commensurate with the size of the
whole sponge. The horny Sponges are almost confined to
the warmer seas, but the siliceous and calcareous kinds are
common with us, especially the former.
The solid parts are, during life, invested with a glairy
transparent slime, so fluid in most species as to run off
when the Sponge is taken out of its native element; yet
this clear slime is the flesh of the animal.
The spicula, whether of flint or lime, or the horny fibres,
are so arranged as to form numberless pores, with which
the whole animal is perforated; it is to these that our
common Sponge owes its most valuable property of
imbibing and retaining water, as we shall presently see
when we investigate the history of this species in detail.
In life the surrounding water is made to flow through these
pores by a continual current (interrupted, however, at the
will of the animal) from without into the interior of the


34
LIFE, IN IT3 LOWER FORM8.
body. But whither goes this current? The pores lead
into large channels, which also run through the body, like
the drains from individual houses, which run into the
main sewers; and these open on the exterior of the body
by more or less conspicuous orifices called oscula, or mouths.
From these latter the effete water is poured in forcible
streams, and thus a circulating current is maintained.
It was Dr Grant who first established the fact of this
current from personal observation. His account of the
discovery is full of interest. "I put a small branch," he
observes, "of the Spongia coalita, with some sea-water, into
a watch-glass, under the microscope, and, on moving the
watch-glass so as to bring one of the apertures on the side
of the Sponge fully into view, I beheld, for the first time,
the splendid spectacle of this living fountain vomiting
forth from a circular cavity an impetuous torrent of
liquid matter, and hurling along, in rapid succession,
opaque masses, which it strewed everywhere around.
The beauty and novelty of such a scene in the animal
kingdom long arrested my attention; but after twenty-
five minutes of constant observation, I was obliged to
withdraw my eye from fatigue, without having seen the
torrent for one instant change its direction, or diminish in
the slightest degree the rapidity of its course. I continued
to watch the same orifice, at short intervals, for five hours
—sometimes observing it for a quarter of an hour at a
time,—but still the stream rolled on with a constant and
equal velocity." The vehemence of the current then began
to diminish, and in about an hour ceased.*
No one can have looked with any attention at the rocks
* Edin. Phil. Journ. xiii. 102.


SrOKGES.
35
on any part of our shores that are left exposed by the sea
at low spring-tide, without noticing irregular masses of
yellow fleshy substance incrusting them, which rise into
little conical hillocks perforated at the extremity, like the
crater-cones of tiny volcanoes. This is the Crumb-of-bread
Sponge (Halichondria panicea), one of our most common
species; and it is peculiarly suitable for displaying the
currents of which we have been speaking (Plate II. fig. 2).
. Dr Grant remarks, that it presents the strongest current
which he had seen. "Two entire round portions of this
Sponge," he says, "were placed together in a glass of aea-
water, with their orifices opposite to each other at the
distance of two inches; they appeared to the naked eye
like two living batteries, and soon covered each other
with feculent matter. I placed one of them in a shallow
vessel, and just covered its surface and highest orifice
with water. On strewing some powdered chalk on the
surface of the water, the currents were visible at a great
distance; and on placing some small pieces of cork or of
dry paper over the apertures, I could perceive them
moving by the force of the current, at the distance of ten
feet from the table on which the specimen rested.*
The publication of these facts convinced naturalists that
the gelatinous flesh of the Sponge exerted some vigorous
action by which the currents were maintained, and cilia
were suspected to be the organs. But the closest scrutiny
failed to detect them, until first Dr Dobie, and then Mr
Bowerbank, succeeded in seeing them in action in a living
native Sponge. In similar situations to those where the
Crumb-of-bread Sponge occurs, may be found, but pruph
* Edin. Phil. Journ., xiii. 104.


LIFE, IN IT3 LOWER FORMS.
more rarely, the elegant Sack Sponge (Grantia compressa).
It takes the form of a little flattened bag of angular out-
line, and of a whitish hue, with an orifice at each angle.
The bags, which are frequently clustered, hang by a slender
base from the stalks of sea-weeds, or from the naked rocks
(PI. II. fig. 3). When examined they are found to be
hollow, with thin walls; and if a small portion be torn off
and placed beneath a microscope, it will exhibit well the
structure of a spicular Sponge. The substance will appear
crowded with, and almost composed of, calcareous crystals,
most of which are stars of three radiating points, but some
are linear needles, and on the exterior are many which are
pointed at one end, and terminate in a bent, club-like knob
at the other.
It was this species which, under Mr Bowerbank's expe-
rienced eye and delicate manipulation, revealed the moving
oilia. By tearing specimens in pieces (for the use of the
keenest cutting instruments so crushed the texture as to
destroy the parts), and examining the separated edges with
high powers, he found that the sides are composed of a
number of hexagonal cells, defined by the peculiar arrange-
ment of the triradiate spicula, and having their walls
formed by a multitude of nucleated granules (fig. 4).
These angular cells are laid at right angles to the long
axis of the Sponge, extending from the outer surface to
the inner; and they are crossed, near the middle, by a
thin partition, perforated in the centre. In this perfora-
tion, several long, whip-like cilia were seen lashing with
energy, and the same organs were afterwards found to be
connected with the granules of which the cell-walls were
composed. By means of the wavings of these cilia, then,


SPONGES.
37
the water is made to flow through the cells from without,
being discharged into the interior of the sack, and poured
out in streams from the orifices (pscula) which terminate
the angles of the Sponge.*
This beautiful and interesting discovery leaves no doubt
of the animal nature of the Sponges, which is still further
confirmed by some interesting observations we had lately
an opportunity of making on the irritability of Halichon-
dria sanguinea.
"When carefully watched under a power of 70 diame-
ters, this brilliant species exhibits the following appear-
ances :—At first we discern au uneven surface with little
eminences here and there, like hills in an undulating coun-
try. A great number of very slender glassy rods project at
various angles from the surface, perfectly straight, equal
in thickness in every part, with blunt tips. Webs of the
investing membrane cling around the bases of these rods
(spicule/), and are a little elevated with them.
"Presently from one and another of the hillocks, a
round bladder is seen pushing out, which gradually length-
ens, until it becomes elliptical. It is composed of a clear
gelatinous membrane, excessively subtile, with a yellowish
granular film spread irregularly over its surface. Orifices
are now perceived in the rounded tip of the bladder, the
formation and increase of which are so very gradual, as to
defy detection, except by the result These orifices
slowly alter, increasing or diminishing; sometimes a
minute one appears at the margin of a large one, aug-
menting at the expense of the latter, until the dividing
film stretches across,—a narrow straight isthmus between
* Trans. Micr. Hoc. HI 137.


-iii
LIFE, IN ITS LOWEK FORMS.
two lakes of equal dimensions. Sometimes the whole
bladder wrinkles and partially collapses into a rugose
column, and then slowly distends again, when the open-
ings are seen as they were before
"The efferent stream pours out at each of these orifices,
carrying with it foecal matters from the interior, and any
light-floating atoms that may be in the vicinity, as I saw
with beautiful distinctness, by making the surrounding
water slightly turbid.
"On my touching the bladder with the point of a needle,
it at once shrank up into a wrinkled column, but did not
retract, and presently distended again. Thus the specimen
exhibited very distinctly those characteristics of animal life
—sensibility to touch, and spontaneous movements." *
* Tenby, 820.


CHAPTER IV.
Poeifera (Sponges).
Continued.
Though the horny or keratose Sponges are distinguished
from those which have calcareous or siliceous spicula in
them, this distinction must not be understood to imply
that the former are totally destitute of these bodies, but
only that they possess them in an excessively minute
proportion. Mr Bowerbank, in his elaborate and valu-
able investigations "On the Keratose Sponges of Com-
merce," has found spicula of very minute dimensions
imbedded in the substance of the homy fibres of various
species.* Still the immense preponderance of the cor-
neous structure fully warrants their isolation as a natural
group.
The horny fibres, as we have already said, form an
irregularly netted mass, uniting to and separating from
each other at various angles and distances, without the
least order. They are not tubular, as has been sup-
posed, but solid and of unequal thickness in different parts.
Sometimes they are rigid and coarse, as we have seen in a
large tubular Sponge on the shores of Jamaica, almost
* Trans. Micr. Soc. i., p. 32.


EPOXGES.
41
tioned. Both of these species grow abundantly in the
eastern parts of the Mediterranean, especially around the
numberless islets of the Grecian Archipelago. Smyrna is
the great market for the Sponge trade, and tho expor-
tation of this article forms no inconsiderable source of its
prosperity.
Great Britain imports annually about G0,000 lbs. of
Sponge, paying duty of 6d. per lb., with five per cent,
addition. The greater portion comes from the Levant, but
Barbadoes and the Bahamas supply a coarser sort, chiefly
used for washing carriages. Its pores are large, and it
has projecting lobes; the fibres possess little cohesion,
and hence it is commonly called "rotten."
The Grecian Sponges grow in moderately deep water,
usually assuming a more or less manifest cup-form. Those
which reside in the deeper recesses of the sea are said to
be of larger dimensions, as well as of finer texture, than
such as are more exposed to the action of the waves.
Aristotle, who enjoyed peculiar facilities for the study of
these organisms, and who has speculated on their nature,
says that in a living state they are black, except as covered
with the light earthy sediment of the sea :—a circumstance
which, notwithstanding his high authority, we venture to
doubt. He may possibly have supposed specimens to be
alive which were dead, and blackened with sulphuretted
hydrogen.
In many of the Greek islands, the diving for Sponge
forms a considerable part of the occupation of the inhabi-
tants, as it has done from the most remote antiquity.
Hasselquist says:—"Himia is a little, and almost unknown
island directly opposite Rhodes. It is worth notice, on


42
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
account of the singular method the Greeks, inhabitants of
the island, have to get their living. In the bottom of the
sea the common Sponge is found in abundance, and more
than in any other place in the Mediterranean. The
inhabitants make it a trade to fish up this Sponge, by which
they get a living far from contemptible, as their goods
are always wanted by the Turks, who use an incredible
number of Sponges at their bathings and washings. A
girl in this island is not permitted by her relations to marry
before she has brought up a certain quantity of Sponges,
and before she can give a proof of her agility by taking
them from a certain depth." *' In other islands the same
custom prevails, but with reversed application, as in
Nicarus, where the father of a marriageable daughter be-
stows her on the best diver among her suitors,—" He that
can stay longest in the water, and gather the most Sponges,
marries the maid." t
In fact, the employment seems to be common to both
sexes and all ages. Savary, describing a little insular de-
pendence of Rhodes, named Syme, observes as follows :—
"The Sponges which grow around this isle are the only
resource of the inhabitants. Men, women, and children,
all learn to dive. All must seek beneath the waters the
only patrimony which nature has left them. The men
excel all in this dangerous art. They precipitate them-
selves into the sea, and descend to an enormous depth.
Often they do violence to themselves in retaining their
breath too long, and on emerging vomit a mouthful of
blood. At other times they run the risk of being devoured
* Voyages in the Levant (1766), 175.
t Pomet's Hist, of Drugs, v. 102.


SP0KQE8.
43
by sea-monsters, against which the knife which they carry
is but a poor defence. They distinguish with clearness
'distant objects through the crystal element, and as soon
as they perceive voracious fishes, they shake rapidly the
foot of the rope, and in an instant are drawn up to their
boat. I learned these particulars from a diver of the
country, who complained sadly of his hard lot and of his
small profits." *
The uses of Sponge have been appreciated from very
ancient times. We learn from Aristotle that it was used
to line the brazen armour which his countrymen wore in
battle. "The kind called Achilleum, fine in texture, and
very thick and strong, they put under helmets and greaves,
viz., between the armour and the skin, whereby blows are
rendered less stunning." The same kind was employed,
as with us, for cleansing purposes. Thus Homer says :—
"Then with a sponjre he drest
His face all over, necke and hands, and all his hairic breast." f
And in the Odyssey, the seats and tables after the slaughter
of the suitors are cleansed by "well-soaked sponges."}
Martial also informs us, § that the tables after meals were
carefully scoured with wet sponges; for the Greeks and
Romans knew not the comfort of table-cloths, which the
Nineveh marbles shew to have been familiar to the Asiatics.
Another use was that of conveying liquids to the mouths
of persons incapable, from exhaustion or other causes, of
drinking; and the Christian remembers with interest that
the last office rendered to the Lord Jesus in his humilia-
tion, was the moistening of his lips by means of a sponge. ||
* Lettres sur la Grece, 96. f Iliad, lib. xviii.
% Odyssoy, lib. xxii. § Apophor. n. cxlif.
II Matt, xxvii. 48.


LIFE, IN ITS LOWEH FORMS.
Pliny alludes to the Sponge as one of the articles used
by painters of his day: it has been conjectured from this
that water-colours were employed in ancient art, and the
Sponge probably performed a similar office to that which
it holds in the hands of a modern artist—washing out
lights, &c.
In modern surgery, the use of the Sponge is great The
flowing blood in operations is absorbed by it; acrid dis-
charges from wounds and ulcers are thus imbibed; and
dangerous hemorrhages are checked and sometimes
arrested by its application. The sponge-tent, formerly
much used for dilating sinuses and small openings, was
made by dipping the sponge into melted wax, and then
compressing it until it became coo], between iron plates.*
The quality of bibacily in which the value of Sponge
chiefly consists, is owing to the multitude of minute
channels with which its whole substance is perforated, and
is dependent on the law of capillary attraction. By this
law fluids ascend, in tubes of small diameter, to a height
which increases in proportion to their tenuity, as any one
may observe who will plunge the end of a fine glass tube
into water. It is not requisite that the tubular form
should be perfect or uninterrupted; the interspace
between two closely approximated fibres will serve as a
capillary tube; and thus the sponge-fibres present a series
of canals, through which any fluid, with which a portion
of the surface is in contact, will continue to flow until the
whole are filled.
A very different process is this spontaneous imbibition
of water by capillary attraction from that already de-
• Pcreiia, Mat Med. | 1814.


SPOXGES.
45
scribed, by which a constant stream enters at the pores,
and passes out at the oscula. The one is a mechanical,
the other a vital operation. The latter is performed only
during life and health, and contributes to the nourishment
of the animal; the former goes on after death, and is of
no benefit to the Sponge, though very useful to its possessor.
The one may be compared to that indiscriminate devouring
of books, which we sometimes see in great readers—a
voracity insatiable indeed, but which leaves the mind as
empty as it was before; the other to that guarded selec-
tive reading which ever watches to extract mental food,
separating and rejecting by a secret, but potent alchemy,
the.useless and the bad. Or we may compare the one to
a soul dead in trespasses and sins, incapable (because
destitute of spiritual perceptions) of distinguishing truth
from error, and therefore carried about by every wind of
doctrine of those who lie in wait to deceive,—the tools of
Satan and his agents, whose purposes they are unconsci-
ously serving. The other may be likened to a living soul,
who brings everything to the touchstone of the Word,
proving all things, and holding fast only that which is
good, by which he is nourished and edified, his spiritual
life is developed, and he grows in knowledge, in service,
and in grace.
Perhaps we may carry this parallel further. The eclectic
process in the Sponges is not so simple a thing as might
be supposed. From the common water, which bathos all
alike, various and dissimilar substances are separated,
selected, and appropriated by different species. "For
example, it is very common to find growing on the same
rock, or seaweed, a siliceous, a calcareous, and a horny


40
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FOEM3.
sponge; they have all the same exposure, and are all
recipients of the same nutriment, yet does each act upon
this differently. One extracts from the fluid silica, which
it causes to assume a solid crystalline form; another
selects in the same manner the calcareous particles, which,
obedient to the laws of life, assume figures novel to them
in their mineral state; and again, another rejects both
the lime and the flint as injurious to its constitu-
tion." *
So, when the minister of the Word, "a Scribe instructed
unto the kingdom of heaven, bringeth forth out of his
treasury things new and old," souls of varying powers, cir-
cumstances, and necessities, receive the same truths; and
the Spirit of life in their heart, ministering to every one
severally as He will, admonishes one, stimulates another,
guides a third, comforts a fourth; and thus the Word is
found " profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
and for instruction in righteousness.''
The manner in which the Sponges increase their raoe is
highly curious, and affords a beautiful example of the care
which the All-wise God has exercised over His lowest
creatures. According to Professor Grant,t there are found
at certain seasons of the year, within the channels of a
living Sponge, innumerable yellow granules, imbedded in
the gelatinous flesh. These gradually increase in size, and
project more and more into the channels, until at length
one by one becomes freed, and is immediately hurried along
to the nearest outlet by the constant ex-current. Ou
examination, it is now seen to be a little oval gemmule,
* Johnston: Brit. Sponges, 16.
f Edin. Phil, Journal, xiii.


SPONGES.
47
which one might call an egg, but that it possesses tho
faculty of spontaneous motion. The larger extremity is
covered with excessively minute cilia, by the waving
motion of which, as by innumerable oars, it is rowed
along through the water, exactly like one of those In-
fusoria which we described in a former chapter, and
for which it might readily be mistaken. It does not,
therefore, fall to the bottom of the sea as soon as the
ejective impulse of the parental current is exhausted, but
continues to shoot along, until, exerting apparently a
power of choice, it meets with a suitable locality for its
settlement. Here it lodges, spreads out an adhesive film
of gelatinous matter, absorbs its now useless cilia, becomes
stationary, grows by increase of its circumference, and
soon develops all the structure, and exercises the func-
tions, that characterised its parent.
"It is curious," observes Professor Jonas, "to observe
the remarkable exception which Sponges exhibit to the
usual phenomena witnessed in the reproduction of animals,
the object of which is evident, as the result is admirable.
The parent Sponge, deprived of all power of movement,
would obviously be incapable of dispersing to a distance
the numerous progeny which it furnishes. They must
inevitably have accumulated in the immediate vicinity of
their place of birth, without the possibility of their distri-
bution to other localities. The seeds of vegetables, some-
times winged and plumed for the purpose, are blown
about by the winds, or transported by various agencies to
distant places; but in the present instance, the still
waters in which Sponges grow would not have served to
transport their progeny elsewhere; and germs, so soft and


48
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
delicate, could hardly be removed by other creatures.
Instead, therefore, of being helpless at their birth, the
young Sponges can, by means of their cilia, row them-
selves about at pleasure, and enjoy for a period powers of
locomotion denied to their adult state."*
Outline of Anim. Kingd. 17.






Polypifera.


CHA

PoLTMyM* (Pclypmy.
»Bftdw-loring mwiers will put a small phial
Ms aud stroll through some hed^-rowed Ir.n*
felts' «- the sweetest wu» u of tlui year, he maj
* Wtaitatioo id 'he lestu'ts tıf his walk, Let
4* M*pis to thci side of tho lirst iMich tr l,ool
water in not fetid, where the hurfuco is
|tM ovur »ith the verdant duck-iveod, and
'here '', utia plant*, springing from tho bottom,
!ıw tfc'" '•♦c/ in the lr.npid element Stoop n/ down
ti iiu (r i .t hhi, >• •»;,
'.'•USJ: '< r;k-weed, disturbing tho *s« r m sligh:
lx«^^HH|Mft shen, peeping through ,
iuiid* ''^hpSpw slowly and caret'i.!!/ K 't-,n<. tt«»
ivtuiK.. ı'i lhe mud he will proUtblv **• a g,/o I I
kMA* of jelly, from the afoe of a •
iamv vlheriug to the stalk* an" u»*«i
-b'- <*»> of the aqnatio plants :~-U* hit*


1


CHAPTER V.
Poltpifera (Polypes).
Continued.
If any of our wonder-loving readers will put a small phial
into his pocket, and stroll through some hedge-rowed lane
or quiet field at the sweetest season of the year, he may
find food for meditation in the results of his walk. Let
him direct his steps to the side of the first ditch or pool
in which the water is not fetid, where the surface is
already mantled over with the verdant duck-weed, and
where many aquatic plants, springing from the bottom,
wave their leaves in the limpid element. Stooping down
on the brink, let him lift with his fingers a little of the
coating of duck-weed, disturbing the water as slightly as
possible, and then, peeping through the opening he has
made, examine slowly and carefully the bottom thus
revealed. On the mud he will probably see a good many
round knobs of jelly, from the size of a turnip-seed to that
of a pea, of a transparent green hue, and others of the
same kind adhering to the stalks and under surfaces of
the leaves of the aquatic plants:—let him select a few of


50 UFE, IS IM LOWER FORMS.
these, place them, with some clear water and a fragment
of some plant, in his phial, and hasten home. He will
have obtained a creature which, about a century ago,
electrified the scientific world, and opened up a new and
most marvellous chapter in the history of Life. It is the
Fresh-water Polype {Hydra viridis).
The invention of the microscope had given an immense
impetus to natural
science; and a gal-
axy of illustrious
men had by its
means been an-
nouncing wondrous
facts, the records of
which fill the pages
of the Philosophical
Transactions of our
own Royal Society,
as well as many
Hydra Tiridis—(nat. Ait magnified.) works of great merit
specially devoted to microscopy. But yet, when, in 1744,
Abraham Trembley of Geneva declared what he had seen
of this little fresh-water animal, this living ball of green
jelly, it was regarded as a thing incredible, and even im-
possible. The facts "were so contrary to all former ex-
perience, and so repugnant to every established notion of
animal life, that the scientific world were amazed; and
while the more cautious among naturalists set themselves
to verify what it was difficult to believe, there were many
who looked upon the alleged facts as impossible fancies.
The discoveries of Trembley were, however, speedily con-


. POLTPIS.
61
firmed; and we are now so familiar with the outlines of
the history of the fresh-water polype, and its marvellous
reproductive powers, that we can scarcely appreciate the
vividness of the sensation felt when it was all novel and
strange: when the leading men of our learned societies
were daily experimenting on these poor worms, and trans-
mitting them to one another from distant countries, by
careful posts, and as most precious gifts; and when even
ambassadors interested themselves in sending early in-
telligence of the engrossing theme to their respective
courts." *
Let us try to see what Trembley saw. Put the phial
in a window, and allow it to remain untouched a while.
The balls of jelly have all attached themselves, some to the
glass sides, some to the plant, but they are balls no longer.
Each is a thread of some half-inch in length, and about
as thick as small twine, adhering by one extremity; while
from the other radiate, like a star, six slender threads,
which are waved irregularly through the water, thrown
into spiral coils or various contortions, elongated, contract-
ed, elongated again, slowly or suddenly, and in different
degrees. Two or three minute water-insects are swimming
giddily about; one of them, as he shoots unconsciously by,
just touches one of these slender threads. In an instant
the playful course is arrested; the little thing strives to
pursue his way, drags the flexible cord that holds him
hither and thither; redoubles his efforts, pulls away and
stretches it till we think it must break and free him.
No! like a skilful angler, the Jelly is but wearying his
victim : suddenly the thread is thrown into corkscrew coils,
* Johnston, Brit. Zooph. 126


LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
and the helpless insect is dragged in; another thread ia
brought to bear upon it, and another. Poor thing!
"actum de eo est," it is all up with him! He is dragged
helplessly to the base of the radiating threads, and there,
in the midst of their circle, an aperture is gaping, which
stretches wider and wider, while the prey is slowly sucked
in, until it is quite engulphed within the gelatinous body.
But, for some time before this, the prey had become
quite motionless; its struggles, though violent at first, had
soon entirely ceased, and it was evident that a fatal effect
had been produced by the mere contact of those slender
threads.
What is the nature of this subtle venom that resides in
a creature apparently so low in the scale of being, so simple
in structure, and almost homogeneous in substance t
Worms, and the larvae of insects, that may be wounded,
and even chopped into pieces, and yet survive for hours,
die suddenly from a touch of these gelatinous threads!
"I have sometimes," says Baker, "forced a worm from a
polype the instant it has been seized, at the expense of
breaking off the polype's arms, and have always observed
it to die very soon afterwards, without one single instance
of recovery."* On the other hand, the tiny water-fleas,
and other minute Crustacea, frequently escape with im-
punity even from the very mouth of the polype; for they
are enclosed in a horny shell, which evidently protects
their vital parts from the morbific touch.
The microscope throws light on the question, and re-
veals a most elaborate system of offensive weapons with
which these soft and sluggish creatures are provided.
* History of the Polype, 83.


POLYPES.
63
According to Corda, each tentacle forms a slender mem-
branaceous tube, filled with an albuminous substance
nearly fluid, mingled with some oily particles. This
substance, at certain definite points, swells out into
tubercles or dense warts, which run round the tentacle in
a spiral line. Each wart is furnished with several spine-
bearing vesicles, which are organs of touch, and with an
organ of highly curious structure, which is the weapon of
offence.
The organ of touch consists of a fine sacr enclosing
another with thicker walls, within which there is a small
cavity. From the upper extremity, where the inner and
the outer sacs are in contact, there projects a long cilium,
or fine pointed bristle, which is not retractile, and appears
to be immoveable.
The weapon of offence is placed in the midst of these
spines, in the centre of each wart. It consists of an oval
transparent sac, imbedded in the substance of the wart,
with its perforated extremity exactly at the surface. At
the bottom of the interior of the sac there is a body, in
shape resembling a saucer, in the centre of which stands
a small oval, solid body, bearing on its summit a cal-
careous dart, pointed at its extremity, and bifid, or sagit-
tate, at its base. This dart can be projected at the will
of the animal, and again withdrawn into the sac. When
the prehensile instinct is exerted, the darts are thrust out
with force, and, entering the tissues of the prey, retain it:
while at the same time, in all probability, a subtle but
potent poison is injected, the effects of which we have
already alluded to.
But this is a modern discovery. The circumstance in


LIFE, IN 118 LOWER FORMS.
the economy of these animals which appeared so anoma-
lous, was the mode in which they were both naturally
and artificially multiplied. They were manifestly animals,
yet it was found that they could be propagated by slips
or cuttings, like plants! In the warm weather of sum-
mer each polype is observed to shoot forth, from various
parts of its body, little warts, or knobs, which increase
rapidly, until in a few days they assume the form of the
parent animal, each one being furnished with a circle of
tentacles, though still attached at its lower end. The
young one, which up to this period had received its nutri-
ment from the parent's stomach, from which a channel
had communicated with its own, now catches prey with
its own tentacles, the duct closes, the connexion of the
base with the mother becomes more slender, and at iengtn
the little animal falls off, and commences independent
life. Such is the ordinary mode of increase—generation
by gemmation.
In autumn, the Hydra propagates by means of eggs,
which are deposited around the parent; the basal portion
of her body being spread over them, and becoming a horny
protecting skin. She immediately dies, and the eggs are
hatched in the ensuing spring.*
But these strange animals may be artificially increased
at pleasure, and that by means which, to higher animals,
would inevitably destroy, instead of multiplying life. If
the head of a polype, with all its tentacles, be cut off from
the trunk with scissors, it will presently develop a new
trunk and base, while the headless trunk begins to shoot
out new tentacles; and thus, in a little time, two perfect
* Laurent, L'Institut, No. «&. i. „ „


POLYPES.
animals are formed. If one of these be cut into three,
four, or half-a-dozen pieces, each piece supplies the want-
ing parts, and so many animals are made, all as perfect
and active, and endowed with the same functions, as the
first. Nor does it signify in what direction the mutila-
tion is made; a longitudinal, a diagonal, or a transverse
division is equally successful; nay, even a small portion
of the skin soon grows into a polype.
It was from this power of perpetual reproduction, that
this singular animal received the name of Hydra, by
which it is known among naturalists; as if it realised the
ancient monster of fabulous story, whose heads sprouted
anew as fast as they were cut off by Hercules.
Most curious monstrosities were produced by the expe-
riments of philosophers on these animals, especially by
partial separations. If a polype be slit from the summit
to the middle, one will be formed having two heads, each
of which will capture and swallow food. If these again
be slit half-a-dozen times, as many heads will be formed
surmounting the same body. If now all these be cut off,
as many new ones will spring up in their place, while
each of the severed heads becomes a new polype, capable
of being, in its turn, varied and multiplied ad infinitum;—
so that in every respect our little reality exceeds its fabu-
lous namesake.
The polypes may be grafted together. If cut-off pieces
be placed in contact, and pushed together with a gentle
force, they will unite and form a single one. The head
of one may be thus planted on the trunk of another.
Another method of uniting them, perhaps still more
wonderful, is by introducing one within the other; the


66 Lira, in its lower forms.
operator forced the body of the one into the mouth of the
other, pushing it down so that the heads were brought
together. After forcibly keeping it for some time in this
state, the two individuals at length united, and a polype
was formed, distinguishable only by having twice the
usual number of tentacles.
There is one species which can actually be turned inside
out like a glove, and yet perform all the functions of life
as before, though that which was the coat of the stomach
is now the skin of the 'body, and vice versa. If it should
chance that a polype so turned had young in the act of
budding, these are, of course, now within the stomach.
If they have arrived at a certain degree of maturity, they
extend themselves towards the mouth of the parent, that
they may thus escape when separated. But those which
are less advanced turn themselves spontaneously inside
out, and thus place themselves again on the exterior of the
parent.
A multitude of other variations, combinations, and
monstrosities, have been, as it were, created by the
ingenuity of philosophers; but these are sufficient to give
a notion of the extraordinary nature of these animals,
and to account for the wonder with which they were re-
garded.
The Hydra was, until lately, considered as an animal
of very simple structure, being composed of mere gra-
nules of jelly, set in a glairy, enveloping fluid. But the
further we push our researches, the more are we disposed
to hesitate in pronouncing on the comparative simplicity
or complexity of any organism. We have already seen
the elaborate array of weapons in the tentacles. M.


P0LYPJS8.
67
Gervais has shewn that the component granules of the
body are of diverse forms, and, in all probability, sustain
different relations to the general economy. The whole
body consists of a sac, with thin dilatable walls, enclosing
a capacious cavity, which forms the stomach : the granules
which border this cavity are conical papillae projecting
into the stomach, and are supposed to have a digestive
function ; the exterior series are lengthened, and consti-
tute an integument, while some of the intermediate ones
are arranged in bands, which are, with little doubt, pre-
sumed to be muscular. The muscular bands in the ten-
tacles are still more distinct, running in four series, which
pass diagonally to and fro from side to side, forming
lozenge-shaped spaces by mutual intersection.


CHAPTER VL
Polypifera (Polypes).
Continued.
Let us suppose that the buds continually put forth from
the sides of the Hydra, instead of falling off to commence
a new and isolated existence, remained permanently at-
tached to the parent stock, giving forth in their turn buds,
becoming permanent branches. We should then have the
essential form of a Compound Polype; such, for example,
as that of the great marine family, Sertulariadce. Here
we find the germ first developing a single Hydra-like
polype, consisting of a slender stem or body of granular
flesh, enclosing a stomachal cavity, the orifice of which is
surrounded by a circle of sensitive tentacles. Soon, how-
ever, a lateral bud projects, which shoots upward and
develops a similar head of tentacles, while, from the
side of this, another shoot still carries up the rising stem,
which assumes a plant-like condition of branching stalks,
with many lateral tentacled buds. It is true that in these
marine species we commonly find an additional structure,
of which no trace appears in the fresh-water Hydra. The
whole compound animal is enclosed in a tube of trans-
parent substance, somewhat flexible though firm, resem.


POLYPES.
bling horn, an exudation from the gelatinous integument;
and this tube, at every bud, takes the form of an open
cell or cup (varying much in shape according to the
species), into the cavity of which each individual polype-
head can withdraw itself on alarm, and from the orifice of
which it protrudes and expands when seeking prey.
In the accompanying Plate, the figure a represents one
of the most regular of these species; and, therefore, one
whose construction is peculiarly intelligible. It is a
group of the Polype named Laomedea geniculate, very com-
monly found springing from the broad leathery leaves of
the fingered tangle, Laminaria digitata, that great olive-
brown sea-weed that waves its huge fronds to and fro just
below the level of the lowest spring-tides. The first ap-
pearance of the Polype is a slender horny thread that
creeps along the surface of the leaf, adhering firmly to its
surface. Presently such a tiny budding stem as we have
just described springs up from the root-thread, which con-
tinues to creep on its way over the leaf, now and then
bending its course at an abrupt angle, and sending up
fresh stalks at regular intervals, which at length become a
miniature forest. A few such stalks are represented at a, of
the natural size; and, at fig. b, one of these, or at least a
portion of one, is shewn as it appears considerably mag-
nified. The horny tube is seen, with its cup-like cells:
the body of the Polype, a thread of gelatinous flesh, per-
meates the stem and the branches, maintaining a common
life: at intervals, the polype-heads project in the manner
of buds, each occupying its transparent cell, and displaying
its crown of tentacles which radiate on every side. The
lower cells are commonly empty, the polype-heads having


CO
LITE, IX ITS LOWER FORMS.
died out, successively, as young ones continually shoot
forth at the extremities of the branches.
At certain seasons of the year peculiar vesicles appear,
which are special organs of reproduction. The analogy to
a plant is maintained here also; we have already seen the
development of a stem with buds, growing into twigs and
branches; here we have the fruit-capsules bearing the
germs of another generation.
Sometimes we find these organs few in number, seated
here and there in the angle formed by the branches, or
by the buds with the stalk. At other times they are very
numerous, crowded together on the stalk, projecting in
regular succession in the same plane, which forms a right
angle to the arrangement of the cells. Each of the cap-
sules or vesicles is a tall, vase-like, transparent body,
considerably larger than a cell, but closely resembling it,
except that its summit is abruptly narrowed to a short
rim like a pitcher. One of these organs is represented in
fig. b.
The common nutrient flesh permeates the capsule as
it does a cell, and develops therein a very peculiar em-
bryo. When somewhat matured, the permeating tube is
seen swollen out into separate ovate sacs, ten or more in
number, each of which contains several embryos. Those
nearest the mouth of the vesicle are first developed, and
escape successively by slowly emerging from the pitcher-
like rim. Fig. c represents a vesicle much magnified, with
its included embryos in various degrees of maturity, and
one in the act of escaping. The appearance of the tiny
creature when it finds itself at liberty is most surprising
and interesting, espeoially when, from a crowded forest of


poly ma.
61
Polypes, the embryos are escaping by thousands. Mr
Peach, who first observed them, thus describes the scene
he saw. Having, on the 19 th of February, placed a
specimen of Laomedea dichotoma in a large glass of sea-water,
he found, a day or two after, that the water appeared
muddy, an appearance caused by myriads of moving objects,
that resembled umbrellas without handles, or very wide
and short hand-bells. "I took," says this agreeable ob-
server, " a small quantity of the water, and placed it under
the microscope, when thousands of the objects were sport-
ing about in all directions, moving at a rapid rate by the
ciliary appendages on their rim. All at once they would
withdraw their cilia, and the handle-like appendage on the
back, and become a mere speck; and after resting a short
time they would again throw out their cilia and appendage,
and round they went waltzing with each other. It was
perfectly astonishing in this crowded assembly to find that
they very seldom came into collision; and if so, how soon
matters were again accommodated. They continued active
up to the 2d of March, when I lost them as if by magic.
I fancied they might have been the young of worms;
therefore, I took the Laomedea, washed it, took fresh sea-
water and filtered it through three or four folds of fine
linen, and placed the specimen in this: the next morning
I had a still more innumerable host of these delightful
things. They assume various positions, and when in the
water they remind me of thousands of parachutes thrown
from a balloon, descending in various states of expansion."
The author of these pages has had an opportunity of
confirming and extending the observations of Mr Peach.
It is easy to find the minute, sylph-like creatures, for all


POLYPES.
63
tatingly pronounce them eyes, and so they are considered
by some eminent physiologists. Others, however, con-
sider them to bear a closer analogy to our organs of hear-
ing, the crystalline globule (or otolithe) being, as it is
stated, capable of vibration within its vesicle. Whatever
they be, the same organs are found, in the same form, in
that class of animals just alluded to, the Jelly-fishes or
Medusae.
The disk is endowed with an energetic power of con-
traction, by which the margin is diminished, exactly like
that of a Medusa in swimming; and the tentacles have
also the power of individual motion, though in general
this is languid, their rapid flapping being the effect of the
contraction and expansion of the disk just mentioned, pro-
ducing a quick involution and evolution of the margin,
and carrying the tentacles with it. Occasionally, how-
ever, all the tentacles are strongly brought together at
their tips, with a twitching, grasping action, like that oi
fingers, which is certainly independent of the disk.
The phenomena, ot which an example has been given
in this paper, have almost as greatly startled the philo-
sophers of our age, as those connected with the reproduc-
tion of the Hydra astonished our ancestors a century ago.
As in the former case, they were disbelieved, denied, ridi-
culed, confirmed, believed, wondered at, and at length have
found a place among the recognised laws of organic life,
as the Law of the Alternation of Generations. When w«
come to speak of the Medusae as a class, we shall hav(
occasion to revert to the topic again; for the present w(
may state, that the order described is found to prevail
among many species and genera of the marine Polypes


64
LIFK, IN 1T8 LOWKIt FORMS.
That order is briefly as follows :—The Polype, a fixed and
rooted animal, increases its own individual life for a while
by putting forth a succession of budding heads, but at a
certain period gives birth to a number of beings that bear
no resemblance to itself in form or habit, but are, to all
ntents and purposes, free swimming Medusae. Each of
these, after pursuing its giddy course for a time, produces
a number of eggs, which change into active animals having
the closest resemblance to Infusoria. Each of these latter
presently becomes stationary, and affixed to some foreign
body, along which it creeps, as a root-thread, shooting up
tubular and celled Polypes, as described in the early part
of this chapter.
It is evident that this is a very different thing from the
metamorphosis which takes place in Insects and Crustacea,
where it is but one individual passing through a succession
of forms, by casting off a succession of garments that con-
cealed, and, as it were, masked the ultimate form. The
butterfly is actually contained within the caterpillar, and
can be demonstrated there by a skilful anatomist. In this
case, however, there are distinct births, producing in a
definite order beings of two forms, the one never producing
its image directly, but only with the interposition of a
generation widely diverse from it. Hence, to use the
striking though homely illustration of one of the first
propounders of this law, any one individual is not at all
like its mother or its daughter, but exactly resembles its
grandmother or its granddaughter.


CHAPTER VII.
Polypifera (Polypes).
Continued.
Who is there, among the thousands that throng from our
cities and towns to breathe the air of the coast and to gaze
out on the boundless sea, that is not familiar with the
Sea-Anemones t And who is not eloquent in their praise?
Who has not admired the starry flowers, all instinct with
life and sensation, that spread their beauteous petals
beneath the crystal water?—the Anthea, with its snaky
locks of satiny green, tipped with pink; the Thick-horned
Bunodes in the dark tide-pool, sheltered beneath over-
arching tufts of crimson and purple weeds, as if, like the
modest violet, it would hide its charms, those pellucid
ccnes of crimson and white, set in gorgeous array, of
which it needs not to be ashamed; the Daisy Sagartia,
expanding its broad and flat circular disk, soberly hued
and margined with an elegant fringe, over the edges of
some narrow fissure in the leprous rock? Who has not
felt somewhat of a naturalist's enthusiasm at seeing the
sea-worn stones studded with the plump, glossy, fruit-like,
Smooth Anemones (Actinia), their array of tentacles care-
fully packed away within the body, waiting the return of


66
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
the tide which has leftthem dry, and each one contracted
into a hemispherical button of tremulous flesh, varying
exceedingly in colour,—brown, chocolate, dark red, purple,
crimson, pink, flesh-colour, green, olive, and not unfre-
^uently, especially in the overgrown specimens, specked all
over with light green on a dark red ground 1 Yes; our
readers are doubtless familiar with these attractive crea-
tures, and are prepared to hear with interest some of the
details of their curious structure and economy.
In order to understand the subject more perfectly, it
would be desirable to study the Sea-Anemones at home
and at leisure. Nothing is more easily accomplished.
Carry down to the rocky margin of the sea, at low tide, a
wide-mouthed phial, and select your specimen. It adheres
firmly to the stone by a broad fleshy base, but the attach-
ment is one of adhesion merely; there is no organic con-
nexion between the animal and its support . You will
find no difficulty in detaching it, if you proceed gently and
with care, working the back of your finger-nail, or (if you
like it better) a thin slip of wood, under the circumference
of the fleshy base, and gradually proceeding onward.
When you have succeeded in getting it off, drop it into
your phial, which you may partly fill with sea-water, and
carry home.
A nice little aquarinm may now be improvised for its
accommodation. A washing-basin, or a soup-tureen, will
answer admirably; or a delft foot-bath, or a milk-dish, or
a brown earthen pan. Whatever vessel you choose, put a
few pieces of rock on the bottom, half-fill it with clear
sea-water, and place in it a few (only a few) living sea-
weeds. If you mean to establish an aquarinm of consider-


P0LTPE8. 67
t
able duration, your sea-wceds must be procured with their
root-bases uninjured, the fragments of rock on which they
grow being knocked off by the help of a hammer and
chisel; but for a shorter period—a week or two, for
example—it will suffice to pluck up the living sea-woed
with the fingers, securing as much of the base as possible.
The bright-green weeds are the best.
In a wash-basin of moderate size, a dozen Sea-Anemones
may be accommodated comfortably, and will flourish and
display their beauties and their instincts for an indefinite
period, without any further care, if the vessel be so placed
that the sun's light may every day fall on it, yet not so
exposed as to become tepid. The water, maintaining its
purity and its clearness, will not need to be changed ; and
a scene of charming interest will be constantly presented.
The animals will soon begin to re-attach themselves by
their broad basal disks to the pieces of rock, or to the
sides of the vessel, and after a few hours will have made
themselves at home in their new habitation. Some of
them will be contented to abide week after week where
they first chanced to settle; others, more restless, will
manifest a travelling propensity, shifting their position
from one part of the stone to another, or from rock to
rock, or crawling slowly along the sides of their prison.
•It is true the motion is not appreciable to the eye,
being about as tardy as that of the hour-hand of a watch;
still it is not uncommon for an Actinia to accomplish a
march of three or four inches in the course of a night. It
is effected by a gliding of the muscular base along the
surface, much like the crawling of a snail.
A Sea-Anemone, or Actinia, is essentially a Hydra,


68 LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
being a cylindrical column of flesh, with the free or upper
extremity truncate, and surrounded by one or more circular
series of tentacles. The interior is hollowed to form a
stomach, which is closed inferiorly, and opens superiorly
by a slit in the disk. This orifice is margined by two
muscular lips, excessively extensile, dilatable, and variable
in form. The space between the stomach and the outer
walls of the body is occupied by a number of perpendicu-
lar septa, or partitions of membrane, which are set in a
radiating manner, dividing the whole into chambers. In
these chambers are situated the ovaries, in the form of
frilled bands, much convoluted and covered with cilia,
the germs of which are developed in the interseptal cham-
bers, and find their way out through a duct which opens
at one of the angles of the mouth. It is a pleasing sight,
and one by no means uncommon, to see five, ten, or
twenty young, of various sizes, but perfect in form, expelled
from the duct, and dispersed around, where they soon
attach themselves and constitute a colony around their
parent.
While in the body of their mother, they occasionally
find their way into the tentacles, as these organs are
hollow, and communicate with the interseptal chambers.
Sir John Dalyell, who had paid great attention to these
animals, thought that this was their normal position.
"The embryos," he says, "appear first in the tentacula,
from whence they can be withdrawn and transmitted to
others by the parent, and are at last produced by the
mouth. In the course of six years a specimen preserved
by the author produced above two hundred and seventy-
six young; some pale and like mere specke, with only


POLYPES.
69
eight tentacula; others florid, and with twenty. They
are frequently disgorged along with the half-digested food,
thirty-eight appearing thus at a single litter. An em-
bryo extracted artificially from the amputated tip of a
tentaculum began to breed in fourteen months, and sur-
vived nearly five years. Monstrosities by excess are not
uncommon among the young, one produced naturally
consisting of two perfect bodies; and their parts, sustained
by a single base, exhibited embryos in the tentacula at
ten months, bred in twelve, and lived above five years.
While one body was gorged with food, the other con-
tinued ravenous."*
It is interesting to see the Actinice fed; and as they are
very voracious, they are rarely unwilling to gratify their
benefactors with a display of their swallowing powers.
Their natural prey consists of the smaller Mollusca, Anne-
lida, Star-fishes, Crustacea, and, in short, of any animals
which they are able to seize and to retain. The tentacles
have the same prehensile power as those of the Hydra,—a
power which depends on the presence of projectile barbed
weapons, ordinarly coiled in elastic cells. These organs
are found in inconceivable multitudes imbedded in the
tissues of the tentacles, of the lips, of the stomach, of the
frilled ovarian bands, and especially, in some species, in
long threads which are protruded from pores in the integu-
ment of the body.
The structure of these weapons is as follows :—Each con-
sists of an oval or elliptical sac of transparent membrane,
within which is seen a thread coiled up, and in some
instances an oblong or lozenge-shaped chamber. At the
* Rep. Br. Assoc. 1834; and Edin. New Phil. Journ. xvii.


70
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
pleasure of the animal, or under the stimulus of pressure,
the thread is shot forth from one end of the cell with great
force, until it extends to a length from twice to fifty times
that of the cell. When fully extended, it is seen that the
thread is but a continuation of the cell itself; that when it
was dormant, it was turned in; and that in the process of
expulsion, every part of its length has actually been turned
inside out, like the finger of a glove. Sometimes the
thread appears simple, but in those cases in which a cham-
ber appeared within the cell, it is furnished with an
armature of barbed threads, which after expulsion pro-
ject from the sides of the thread in various directions.
The propulsion of the thread is sufficiently forcible to
enable it to enter the tissues of other animals, and the
barbed structure enables the weapon to retain its hold in
the flesh, which facts warrant the presumption that a
highly poisonous fluid is at the same time injected, capable
of arresting and destroying animal life. Some of the forms
of these organs are represented in the accompanying
figures.
c.

In captivity, the process of taking food may be witnessed


POLYPES.
71
by presenting to the Sea-Anemone any small shellfish or
an atom of raw meat. When a tentacle comes into con-
tact with it, it contracts forcibly, and the prey is thus
dragged upon the oral disk, the surrounding tentacles
arching over it. The lips instantly begin to protrude,
stretching out towards the morsel, which they presently
embrace, and gradually enclose, extending their volume,
until they close over it, sucking it in as it were, and forcing
it to disappear within the body. Digestion now takes
place; and in the course of the next twenty-four hours
the remains, such as the shell of the mollusk, or the hard
parts of a little crab, are disgorged through the mouth,
enveloped in a tenacious, slimy mucus.
Though commonly the prey of the Actiniae is small, it
is not always so; the voracious creature occasionally
mastering and swallowing a victim even much larger than
itself, strange as such a proposition may sound. Dr
Johnston has recorded from his own experience an example
of this. "I had once brought me," he observes, "a
specimen of Actinia crassicornis, that might have been
originally two inches in diameter, and that had somehow
contrived to swallow a valve of the great scallop (Pecten
maximus), of the size of an ordinary saucer. The shell,
fixed within the stomach, was so placed as to divide it
completely into two halves, so that the body, stretched
tensely over, had become thin and flattened like a pancake.
All communication between the inferior portion of the
stomach and the mouth was of course prevented, yet, in-
stead of emaciating and dying of an atrophy, the animal
had availed itself of what undoubtedly had been a very
untoward accident, to increase its enjoyments and its


72
LIFE, IN ITS LOWKB F0RM3.
chance of double fare. A new mouth, furnished with two
rows of numerous tentacula, was opened up on what had
been the base, and led to the under stomach: the indivi-
dual had, indeed, become a sort of Siamese twin, but with
greater intimacy and extent in its unions !"*
What may be the duration of life in these low forms of
existence we know not, but recorded facts seem to warrant
the belief that it is considerable. Sir John Dalyell stated
in 1845, that one was then in vigorous health which had
lived in his possession for a period of seventeen years.t
They appear subject to few vicissitudes, and to enjoy a
more than usual immunity from the attacks of other
animals.
The reproductive energy is no less vigorous in these
animals than in the Hydra; and similar experiments to
those already described have been instituted on these with
similar results. They have been variously maimed and cut
into pieces, the fragments reproduciwg the parts lacking,
and rapidly assuming a complete and normal condition.
We have at least fifty species of Sea-Anemones, including
the allied genera, on the British coasts; and it is probable
that they are even much more numerous than this, as
new discoveries are constantly rewarding the close exami-
nation of any particular locality. Among them are two
or three representatives of a form which is far more
abundant in the tropical seas, where they have acquired
renown above their fellows as "master-builders." The
* Brit. Zoophytes, i. 235.
t We were informed, but a few days ago, that this notable individual still
(September 1856) survives. From its appearance Sir John Dalyell considered
that it was about seven years old when he procured it; it must now, there-
tore, have attained the age of thirty-five years.


POLYPES.
73
structures of the Coral-worms very far excel the mightiest
edifices of man. What was the impious project of Babel,
what are the Pyramids of Egypt, compared with the coral
reef of Australia—a barrier which extends almost without
an interruption for a thousand miles!
The notion that the coral-rock was commenced in the
fathomless depths of the ocean, aud gradually reared to
the surface, has been exploded by the discovery of Darwin,
that the Coral-polypes cannot exist at a greater depth
than some twenty or thirty fathoms. Our limited space
will not permit us to do more than allude to his beautiful
and ingenious theory, by which all the phenomena of coral
formations are explained. It seems certain that every
such structure must have been commenced on the inor-
ganic rock; and the slow subsidence of these in many
instances has produced the various forms of atolls, or ring-
islets enclosing lagoons, of barriers, aud of fringing reefs.
Most intelligent persons are acquainted with the more
common forms of Madrepores or Corals. Whether exist-
ing in massive, ramified, or laminated structures, they com-
monly consist of a light porous stone, studded with shallow
pits, in which are seen thin perpendicular plates radiating
towards a centre. Sometimes instead of pits and a radiat-
ing aiTangement, the plates are set in rows in an involved
and sinuated pattern. Now, during life, from amidst
these plates rises up a gelatinous tissue bearing a mouth
with protrusile lips, and an array of sensitive tentacles,
all of which on alarm are contracted so as to disappear
completely in the stony recesses, leaving nothing apparent
but the white and apparently naked plates. Really, how-
over, they are not naked, but are still invested with a


P0LYFE3.
75
ment of the Actinia, as we have already observed, is
voluntary.
What a storehouse of life is the vast ocean! what a
prodigious Alma Mater! What varied forms of being are
borne in her prolific womb, and nourished on her expan-
sive bosom!" This great and wide sea! wherein are
things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts."
—(Ps. civ. 25.)


CHAPTEK VIII.
Acalephje (Sea-blubbers).
In walking through the crowded thoroughfares of London
on a clear winter's evening, we have often admired the
beauty of the lamps that illuminate the shops and cast
such a flood of radiance on the thronged streets. The
elegant forms of the glass shades, the beauty of the
material of which they are composed, and the various de-
grees of translucency which they are made to assume by
the roughness or polish of their surface, in particular, have
often attracted our attention; and we have been inter-
ested by tracing their very obvious resemblance to certain
living creatures that swim in the vast deep,—creatures
which the poet describes as
"Figured by hand Divine; there's not a gem
Wrought by man's art to be compared to them;
Soft, brilliant, tender, through the wave they glow,
And make the moonbeam brighter where they flow." *
We refer of course to the Medusa. The forma given to
our lamp-shades,—spherical, hemispherical, umbrella-
like, saucer-like, spheroids either oblate or prolate, and
* Crabbe.


SEA-BLUBBERS.
77
others which no single or compound term can express,—
are tho very counterparts of those of the sea-blubbers,
They, too", look as if they were blown in glass ; the perfect
transparency of some, and the dimly pellucid, and as it
were granulated, texture of others, accurately represents
the polished or ground condition of that substance; while
in some species (as in the genus ASquorea, for example)
we find both conditions, arranged in alternate longitudinal
bands, exactly as we have seen stripes of clear and ground
glass in some lamps at the west end. And further, as we
occasionally see these shades made of stained glass,
and arrayed in colours whose brilliancy is heightened by
the transluceucy of tho material; so, while most of the
animals of which we speak are devoid of positive colour,
there are a few which add a gay hue to a hyaline clear-
ness.
Among the forms which find their true affinities among
the Sea-Anemones, there is a genus named Lucernaria,
which departs very considerably from the ordinary
appearance of its fellows. It is a gelatinous animal, of
the shape of a vase, cup, or trumpet, affixed to the stems
of sea-weeds by a narrow foot, but so slightly as to be de-
tached on the least disturbance. The margin of the cup
bears at certain symmetrical points clusters of slender
tentacles, and a little mobile protrusile proboscis stands
up in the bottom of the vase-like cavity. All these par-
ticulars indicate this delicate animal as the connecting
link between the Actiniae and the Medusas.
The most ordinary form assumed by a Medusa is that
of an umbrella or a mushroom, of greater or less thickness,
composed of a tender jelly of so little consistence that


78 LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
almost the whole may be resolved into simple water,
or a fluid which no chemical analysis has been able to
distinguish from sea-water. A large sea-blubber weigh-
ing fifty ounces is cast upon the beach, and after lying
exposed to a day's hot sun, all that remains is a subtile
and impalpable film spread over the sand where it lay,
which, if carefully collected, will not weigh five grains.
The texture appears to be a collection of cells formed
of the most attenuated membrane and filled with sea-
water.
Yet out of these simple elements, according to the re-
searches of Professor Agassiz, the muscular, the vascular,
the nervous, and other tissues are composed; various
organs, some of them sufficiently complex, are formed; and
different functions are originated. By a periodical suc-
cession of alternate expansions and contractions, the
apparently helpless animal contrives to pump itself
along through the waves with force and precision; by
the elastic threads which lie coiled up in innumerable
capsules, ready to be darted into the flesh of its intended
prey, it can instantly arrest, benumb, and paralyse the
lithe worm and the arrowy fish; by the contractility
of its fimbriated membranes it can drag the prey to
its protrusile mouth, in which it is speedily engulphed,
and almost as speedily digested. Feeble and inert as
they appear, some of these animals are truly to be dreaded
for their power of stinging, whence the whole class have
derived their appellation of Acalephce, or nettles. "Among
them," says Professor Edward Forbes, "Cyancea capillata
of our seas is a most formidable creature, and the terror
of tender-skinned bathers. With its broad, tawny, fes-


SEA-BLUBBERS.
79
tooned, and scalloped disk, often a full foot or even more
across, it flaps its way through the yielding waters, and
drags after it a long train of riband-like arms and seem-
ingly interminable tails, marking its course when the body
is far away from us. Once tangled in its trailing 'hair,' the
unfortunate who has recklessly ventured across the grace-
ful monster's path, too soon writhes in prickly torture.
Every struggle but binds the poisonous threads more
firmly round his body, and then there is no escape; for
when the winder of the fatal net finds his course impeded
by the terrified human wrestling in its coils, he, seeking
no combat with the mightier biped, casts loose his en-
venomed arms and swims away. The amputated weapons,
severed from their parent body, vent vengeance on the
cause of their destruction, and sting as fiercely as if their
original proprietor itself gave the word of attack." *
This remarkable property, there can be no doubt, resides
in the barbed threads, which are projected with amazing
force from elastic capsules, and which are, in aU proba-
bility, connected with a reservoir of the most subtile
poison. They are accumulated in vast numbers in the
tentacles, in the fimbriated furbelows, and in the edges of
the lips, and probably in other parts. It is an astonishing
sight to witness the propulsion of myriads of these jave-
lins, crossing and recrossing their mutual courses, and
rapidly turning themselves inside out, for, as we have
before stated, the projection of each thread is an actual
evolution of its whole length.
Another property common to the Sea-blubbers, though
not constant in all the species, is that of emitting phos-
* Brit. Naked-eyed Medusaj, p. 1CL


50 LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
phoresceiit light. Thaumantias pilosella, occasionally so
abundant on our western shores, is a hemisphere of
hyaline jelly, as large
as a shilling, the edgo
of which is studded
with black or rather
dark purple eye-
specks. If we irri-
tate one of these
creatures in the
dark, by touching it
with a stick, for in-
stance, instantly a
circle of bright tiny lamps is lighted np, every eye-speck
becoming a spark, like a coronet of glittering diamonds,
or like a circular figure of gas-jets, lighted at a public
illumination, and seen from a distance ; more especially
as some of the constituent sparks appear to go out and
revive again, just as do the gas-flames if the night bo
windy. And the beautiful JEquorea Forbesiana, a flat
species resembling in form and size a cake or bun, on
being disturbed gives out its light in a marginal ring,
which suddenly becomes vividly luminous, like those
circles of glory with which the Italian painters delight to
crown their saints and sacred personages.
But these examples yield to some of those that swim at
large in the boundless ocean; where the mariner, in his
lonely watch, occasionally sees, far below the keel of his
ship, what look like swimming globes of fire, or cannon-
balls heated to incandescence : these are believed to ba
some globose species of Medusa? of large dimensions.

Thaumantifis pilosella—(magnified.)


SEA-BLUBBERS.
81
In size, the tribe bafore ns extends through a wide
range, from that lovely little gem, the Tunis neglecta, that
looks like a bead of red coral no larger than a hemp-seed,
to the massive Bhizostoma, which frequently finds its way
into our southern harbours, the disk of which resembles
in dimensions a lady's parasol. In general, the smaller
kinds belong to the Naked-eyed division, the larger to that
characterised by Covered eyes. These terms are con-
venient formulae to express distinctions, which, while they
include the organs of vision, do not rest wholly on them,
the characters in question being found associated with
others which unitedly indicate the latter as a higher grade
of organisation than the former. In the one, the margin
of the disk bears wart-like eyes, which are protected by
complex folds or veils of membrane; and this circum-
stance is associated with another of great importance, the
presence of a much ramified and anastomosing series of
vessels. In the other division, the eyes, when present, are
of simpler structure, quite naked; and the vessels are
simple canals, usually unbranched, and never anastomos-
ing. To the former group, the Covered-eyed Medusae, no
more than about ten species are assigned as natives of the
British seas; and these have as yet found no special his-
torian. Of the latter, Professor Forbes, in his beautiful
"Monograph of the British Naked-eyed Medusa;," has enu-
merated forty-three species, arranged in eighteen genera,
and several more have been added since the publication of
that work. We shall take the liberty of quoting from it
a few practical directions for procuring these lovely crea-
tures, and the more willingly because we have, by personal
experience, proved their efficacy .—


82
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
"They are to be sought for in summer and autumn
when the weather is warm and dry, and the sea calm and
clear. They abound within reach, mostly in the afternoon
and toward nightfall,—probably, also, during the night,
though not then so near the surface of the water. A
small bag of fine muslin, attached to a metal ring, is the
best instrument by which to take them, and may be
used either as a laud-net fixed to the end of a stick or
pole, or as a tow-net suspended over the stern of a vessel,
when at anchor, or making very gentle way through the
water. ....
"When the tow-net is taken out of the sea it is to be
carefully reversed, and its contents gently emptied into a
basin or glass jar, filled with clear salt-water. It is best
to plunge the net beneath the surface when being emptied,
as thus the Medusae are enabled to detach themselves
from the threads and swim away without injury. When
the net is out of the water they appear like little, adhering,
shapeless, masses of clear jelly, and exhibit no traces of
their elegant form and ornaments. When in the jar or
basin they are often, on account of their extreme trans-
parency, very difficult to distinguish; but by placing the
vessel in the sun or beside a strong artificial light, we see
their shadows floating over the sides and bottom of the
basin, like the shadows of flitting clouds on a landscape.
These soon guide us to the creatures themselves, and before
long we distinguish their ocelli and coloured reproductive
organs;"*—when they may be lifted into other vessels,—
the larger by means of a spoon, the smaller with thumb-
tubes, for more close examination.
*Op. cit., p. 89.


CHAPTEE IX.
AoALBPHiE {Sea-blubbers).
Continued.
We propose now to speak of the reproduction of the
Medusae, at least of the Discophora, or umbrelliform fami-
lies, for of the other orders we know little, except their
forms. Some of the phenomena of Alternate Generation
have been described in a previous paper, a compound hy-
droid Polype giving birth to tiny Medusae, which after-
wards produce a generation of Polypes. We have now to
contemplate the counterpart of this wonderful process,—a
free swimming Medusa producing gemmules, or motive
eggp, each of which becomes a stationary Polype, and ulti-
mately throws off a number of Medusae.
The ovaries in these animals are ordinarily placed in
contact with the walls of the central stomach, or with the
digestive canals that radiate from it across the disk. At the
season of development they consist of numerous ribands
of membrane, much folded and convoluted, and fringed
with free pendent filaments, covered with vibratory cilia.
The ova are globose, gelatinous germs, existing in immense
multitudes, which on extrusion are strongly ciliated, and
bear a close resemblance tq Infusorial Animalcules. They


84
LIFE, IN ITS LOWEB FORMS.
are endowed with the power of spontaneous motion, and
apparently of choice as to locality, and have a definite
form, which is commonly pear-shaped, though the outline
is very flexible and variable.
As the time of oviposition approaches, the umbrella
becomes gradually reverted, or turned inside out, the
ovaries swelling and protruding more and more, until they
occupy the principal portion of the animal. We believe
this to be general in the discoid Medusa?, having observed
it in species that belong both to the Covered and Naked-
eyed divisions—namely, in the genera Chrysaora, Pelagia,
and Turris.
In the case of the lovely little Coral-bead Medusa
(Turris neglecta), already alluded to, the phenomena are
well seen, the ovaries being orange or pale scarlet, studded
with proportionally large ova, of a rich purple hue. The
latter appear to escape from the walls of the ovaries, work-
ing their way out at the sides. They drop down on the
bottom of the vessel, where they move about slowly for a
while, but to no great extent, by means of their vibratile
cilia. By watching them we ascertain the following facts.
The gemmule, having adhered to some foreign substance,
grows out into a lengthened form, variously knobbed and
swollen, and frequently dividing into two branches, the
whole adhering closely to its support. After a day or
two's growth in this manner, a perpendicular stem begins
to shoot from some point of this creeping root, and soon
separates into four straight, slender, slightly divergent
tentacles, which shoot to a considerable length. The wholo
is of a crimson hue, with the exception of the growing
extremities of the creeping root, which are pellucid white,


80 LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
organs, together with the whole body, are exceedingly
extensile and contractile. It is voracious, and cannibal
in its appetite, swallowing even its fellows which are in
the incipient erratic condition.
Meanwhile the number of tentacles increases by the
successive growth of new ones in the interspaces, until they
amount to thirty-two; the Polype augments in size, and
even produces buds, as the Hydra does, which become
Polypes like itself, with the power of changing ultimately
into Medusae; and at length it becomes marked with a
series of constrictions, which, growing more and more
deeply cut, divide the whole body into a number of dis-
tinct portions, which resemble so many tiny tea-cups piled
one within another.
The changes thus described occupy the autumn and
winter months; on the return of spring the little cups,
whose margins are cut into eight cleft processes, succes-
sively detach themselves from the body, turn themselves
over, and swim away,—minute, but veritable Medusas,—
needing only the development which abundant nutriment
soon supplies to become in all respects like their parents
of the preceding season.
Such is the brief outline of some of the wonderful
phenomena displayed in the generation of the Sea-blubbers,
which are cast up by thousands on the shingle, to dissolve
beneath a summer's sun. Such is one of the works of
Him "whose way is in the sea, and whose path is in the
great waters, and whose footsteps are not known." (Ps.
lxxvii. 19.)
But all the Medusae are not comprised in the umbrella-
formed Discophora. There are other orders, which we


SEA-BLUBBERS.
87
shall briefly exemplify. The seas around our coasts
swarm in summer with hosts of a little creature which
resembles an oval ball of the purest glass, varying from
the size of a pea to that of a hazel-nut, though there is a
larger species on the Scottish coast, as big as a lemon.
The one we speak of is named Cydippe pileus. If we take
one from the muslin bag of a towing-uet, and shake it off
into a tumbler of clear sea-water, we shall have a most
interesting object before us. Indeed, so perfectly hyaline
is its consistence, that we must keep a sharp watch on it,
or it will escape our sight, and we may not easily find it
again. From pole to pole of this crystal globe run eight
bands, like meridians of longitude, across each of which
are fixed a great number of fiat plates, which move up and
down symmetrically and rapidly, rowing the little ball
along like so many paddles. By the vigorous action of
these organs, which, decomposing the rays, play in the
sun's light with the most brilliant prismatic colours, the
Cydippe performs at pleasure the most varied movements,
with inimitable ease, rapidity, and grace. It shoots with
force through the water, catching its prey with open
mouth; nor is this always of the most helpless sort;
small shrimps of various species form its ordinary food,
and these are swallowed and digested with surprising
facility.
At times the little Cydippe wishes to arrest its motion;
and for this purpose it is furnished with two cords of great
length, which, whatever other ends they may serve, cer-
tainly answer the purpose of mooring-cables. At the
sides of the body there are two oblong cavities, into which
these threads may be entirely coiled up in an instant, or


88
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
at the good pleasure of the creature projected, and un-
folded to a length ten or twelve times that of the body.
Each thread is set with a single row of short filaments, at
regular distances, which are ordinarily carried in spiral
curves, capable of elongation or contraction like the
cables themselves.
The crystalline Cydippe represents the Ciliograde order
of Acakphm, or that whose motion is performed by means
of ciliary paddles. Another order is the Physograde, where
the apparatus for swimming consists of one or many blad-
ders inflated with air, probably generated by the animal.
An example of this tribe is well-known to those who
navigate the warmer regions of the ocean as the Portu-
guese man-of-war (Physalia pelagica), where we have seen
it in myriads studding the calm surface of the glittering
deep. Nor is it wholly a stranger to more northern climes,
for fleets of these adventurous craft arc sometimes driven
by the force of Atlantic currents far out of their reckon-
ing, and stranded upon our western shores.
This singular animal consists of an oblong bladder of
clear membrane, surmounted by a thin crest, which runs
along its upper edge, and is capable of being contracted,
so as to be almost invisible, or of being elevated into a
tense and lofty sail. When in the latter condition, the
whole forms a beautiful object; the glossy, colourless
bladder reflecting the sun's rays, while the upper half of
the sail is tinged with a delicate rose-colour, and the bot-
tom of the bladder with a rich azure. A3 the little thing
tosses and floats upon the waves it bears a striking resem-
blance to a child's toy-ship; and even those most familiar
with its appearance gaze upon it with pleasure. We


SEA-BLUBBEIiS.
SO
wonder that it never capsizes, but, on looking more closely
at it, we see depending from its bottom a great bunch of
wrinkled strings, some of which are blue and others crim-
son; these help to keep it steady. These pendent organs,
which differ considerably among themselves in form and
appearance, have, doubtless, diverse functions; but some
of them are known to be endowed with a most terrific
power of stinging, and are, therefore, concluded to be pre-
hensile tentacles, whose use is to arrest, benumb, and
hold the fleeting prey.
In another tropical genus wo find a new form and a
new principle of motion. A number of delicate threads,
called cirri, hang from the under surface, which are con-
sidered as the swimming organs, and the animals consti-
tute the order Cirrigrada. We are not sure, however,
whether these ought not rather to be grouped with the
last mentioned, the cirri being probably analogous, both
in structure and function, to the pendent tentacles of
Physalia. These, too, are dauntless mariners—ocean-
sailors of an antiquity long prior to the period when he of
the "robur et ces triplex" acquired poetic fame. We once
met with a few specimens of the "Sallee-man"* (Vclella)
on the shore of Portland; but we will use the elegant
language of Professor Jones to describe it:—
"Its body is a flattened disk, which floats upon the
bosom of the sea; and as it swims we see depending fr ^m
its under surface a great number of small suckers, where-
with to suck up food as it moves slowly onward. Pro-
* The popalar names given to those oceanic Medusae point to a time when
the maritime power of Portugal and Morocco was more formidable than it is
unw.'


90
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
jecting from the upper surface is the broad, flat sail—a
soft, transparent membrane, but still strong enough for
the light boat that bears it.
"But if a sail be given to beings such as these, whose
bodies are almost of the same density as the salt water in
which they live, and at the same time so soft in their con-
sistency, some provision must be made to float the tiny
ship, and keep it buoyant. A mast is likewise needful,
and, moreover, ballast must be furnished to secure its
steady course, and keep it from capsizing. All these are
furnished, and by means as simple as they are efficient.
Unlike the other Acalqihs, whose body is entirely soft,
these species form in the substance of their backs a shelly
plate, so thin as scarcely to be visible, and yet so porous
that, being filled with air, it is extremely light, so much
so as to constitute a float, by means of which the creature
swims. Placed vertically on the top of this stands up
another lamina of shell, still thinner than the former,
planted in the substance of the sail; this forms the mast,
and gives sufficient strength and stiffness to enable the
thin, filmy sail to stand erect against the wind, which
otherwise would be impossible. The ballast is obtained
from other sources; small shells and stones are seized by
the appendages upon the lower surface of the body,
which, from their weight, may serve to trim the little ves-
sel as it scuds along, climbing the billows as they rise and
fall, or slowly sailing on the tranquil deep."*
• "Nat. Hist, of Animals," i. 189.


r



E chinode r mala (Stat-fusli as.)


CHAt^El: >..
On meuy a shingly beach where the hmestone fonaatiou
occnra there may be found small perforated pebbles,
'which, rounded aud polished by-the action of the wavoe,
resemble l«ads of stone. In the days of Popish-superstition,
then* were supposed to be fashioned by au ima i:
'• .Sw.it Cuthbert" for tho rosaries with which pre '•
uad invocations were meted out by tula One of ts-
rooky wlote that speckle the teinpowu muoJ' XortLuuu'
ixrhutd, was assigned to the special m&nui'.<-:ture of thoao
useful articles
"On a nıclc by lindfaftini
Saint Outbbı/rt hits and toil* Go franie
Thoaoa-buru beads Miat boar hia uarue."—J/aruu>!u.
In the same districts where these occur, the wourfcttiufr
 peasaptry.have often admired what they call Ltiy-stoMn,s
class of fossils to which modern geologist* apply (*«
»iilent form Encrinitit; tho stouy steıo,' a ccuwn
of bending in sigmoid curves, resemtiivv. « «»lk
and elegant bell-shaped blossom of a li! .,





CHAPTER X.
Echinodermata (Star-Jishes).
Oh many a shingly beach where the limestone formation
occurs there may be found small perforated pebbles,
which, rounded and polished by the action of the waves,
resemble beads of stone. In the days of Popish superstition,
these were supposed to be fashioned by an imaginary
"Saint Cuthbert" for the rosaries with which prayers
and invocations were meted out by tale. One of the
rocky islets that speckle the tempestuous sea of Northum-
berland, was assigned to the special manufacture of these
useful articles :—
"On a rock by Lindisfarn
Saint Cuthbert 8its, and toils to frame
The sea-born beads that bear his name."—Marwion.
In the same districts where these occur, the wondering
peasantry have often admired what they call Lily-stones, a
class of fossils to which modern geologists apply the
equivalent term Encrinites; the stony stem, and a crown
of rays bending in sigmoid curves, resembling the stalk
and elegant bell-shaped blossom of a liliaceous flower.


92
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
Now the "beads" are nothing more than the joints of
which the stem of the Encrinite is composed, and the
Encrinite itself is the fossil skeleton of an ancient Star-
fish. The abundance of these animals in the primeval
seas may be inferred from the profusion of their remains;
vast strata of marble, extending over large regions in the
northern parts of both hemispheres, being made up of
these "lily-stones," as absolutely, to use the graphic simile
of the late Professor Buckland, "as a corn-rick is composed
of straws."
The form, however, is as rare now as it was anciently
common. Some years ago a fine specimen in a living
state was brought up by the dredge in the Caribbean Sea;
and as the stem was violently torn asunder, the basal por-
tion being wanting, it is inferred that the base is immove-
ably fixed to the rock like a sea-weed. With the excep-
tion of a few fragments found on divers occasions, and
carefully treasured in national museums, this is the only
recent specimen of any considerable size which has been
seen. But a minute kind has been ascertained to inhabit
our own seas, a tiny Encrinite about three-quarters of an
inch in length. It is described as bearing " five pairs of
beautifully pinnated arms, and as of a deep rose-colour,
dotted over with brown spots, which are regarded as the
ovaries. It is dredged up," observes Mr Patterson, "on
many parts of the Irish coast, and is occasionally found
upon the strand. The first specimen we ever possessed
was taken on the beach about six miles from Belfast, and
was brought to that town alive. Anxious to secure so
attractive a specimen for the cabinet, we placed it in a
shallow vessel of fresh water, and found, to our surprise,
,


LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
A full-grown Feather-star is about four inches in ex-
panse; it consists of a central disk, which is a little cup of
shelly substance containing the viscera in its concavity,
and furnished on its margin with ten long, slender, jointed
shelly rays. Strictly speaking, they are but five ; but they
bifurcate so close to their origin as to appear like ten. The
joints of the rays are composed of calcareous substance ; are
perforated, so that each ray is tubular; are rough on the
outside, and bear on two opposite sides rows of flattened
leaf-like appendages (pinna), which are themselves jointed,
and margined with tentacular filaments. Besides these
complex organs, the convex (which is the inferior) side of
the body is furnished with about thirty jointed filaments,
which are shorter, and not pinnated.
A very elegant object is the Feather-star when in
health and activity in its native element. Its ordinary
hues are crimson and yellow, disposed in irregular
patches. On one occasion wo had an opportunity of per-
sonal observation of its manners. We have alluded to its
mode of swimming: when it reposes, it sits on the frond
of a sea-weed, or on the projecting point of some angular
rock, which it grasps with its dorsal filaments, and that
so firmly, that it is difficult to tear it from its hold. If
violence be used, it will catch hold of its support or of any
other object within reach, with the tips of its rays, which
it hooks down for the purpose, and with its pinna; so that
it seems furnished with so many claws, the hard stony
nature of which, as well as the muscular force with
which they are applied, is revealed by the creaking,
scratching noise which they make when they are forced
from any hold, as if they were made of glass.


95
By this beautiful animal we entor into the Echinoder-
mata, a class of beings much more highly organised than
any which we have yet considered. Their most promi-
nent characteristic is, that their softer parts are enclosed
in what may be called an external skeleton, a case of cal-
careous substance, sometimes leathery in texture by the
predominance of animal matter in the combination, but
more frequently resembling in its hardness, rigidity, and
brittleness, the texture of shell or stone.
If this skeleton, however, were made in one unbroken.
piece, it is manifest that there would be no possibility of
the growth of the animal. As the soft glandular parts
are all within the shell, every particle of calcareous mat-
ter deposited would, by being added to the interior sur-
face, diminish the capacity of the box, and leave less room
for the vital organs. This emergency is met by a most
admirable contrivance. If we take a common E2a-urchin
(Echinus) into our hands, and rub off a few of the spines
which cluster over its surface, we shall see that its solid
exterior is a box made up of a vast multitude of tiny pieces
of regular shape, fi tting together at their edges, and soldered,
as it were, into one, with the most exquisite precision.
Yet, close as these pieces appear to be to each other,
and firm as is their adhesion, reason assures us that there
exists between them a living vascular tissue, of excessive
tenuity indeed, yet capable of secreting and of depositing
the materials of growth, in the form of calcareous parti
cles, continually added to the edges of the polyhedral
plates, thus enlarging the capacity of the whole box by the
slow, even, and imperceptible growth of the thousands of
constituent pieces.


96
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FOKMS.
But between the Feather-star and the Sea-urchin there
is so great a diversity in form and appearance, that our
readers may be reluctant to admit them into the same
category; the gulf that separates them seems to be
too wide. Let us see however, if we cannot bridge it
over.
If you have ever thrown a dredge overboard in any of
our quiet bays a mile or two from shore, and examined
the host of curious and strange things which it has brought
up from the floor of the sea, you know what a Brittle-star
is. But if not, we will try to describe it for you. We
select the commonest species,—Ophiocoma rosula, the
Rosette. Imagine a central disk about as large as a silver
fourpenny-piece, of a form between a circle and a pentagon,
composed of five pairs of triangular plates pointing towards
the centre, and separated by bands of leathery skin stud-
ded with minute spines. In the centre of the under
surface of the disk is the mouth, an aperture into which
project five complex, plates, and from whose margin spring
five long slender rays diverging on every side, and looking
much like the tails of so many scaly lizards.
Now these rays are of exquisite workmanship. They
appear to be nearly solid columns, with narrow tubular
canals running through them; but they are penetrated
by various organs, with muscles for motion, with glands
for secretion, with nerves for sensation, and so forth. Ex-
ternally they are seen to be built up of plates, which fit
and partly overlap one another, so as to allow great free-
dom of motion. Those on the upper side are triangular,
with blunt points; those beneath are square, with the
corners cut off. These two series are connected by lateral


KTAR-FISIIIU.
97
ridges, bearing long, slender diverging spines, some seven
or eight in each perpendicular series on each side.
These spines, when examined with a microscope of high
power, present very beautiful objects. We have this in-
stant been charmed by the appearance of several of them
magnified about two hundred diameters. When the rays
of sunlight are reflected from them, they resemble the
most elegant taper columns or obelisks, roughened with
projecting points shooting perpendicularly upwards, and
arranged in parallel rows throughout the whole length;
and, as the whole is composed of a substance of brilliant
transparency and exquisite polish, the points sparkle in the
light as if the whole column were sculptured in crystal
Professor Edward Forbes truly remarks of a spine of this
Brittle-star highly magnified, that it exhibits " a structure,
the lightness and beauty of which might serve as a model
for the spire of a cathedral."
The internal structure of the spines is no less admirable
than their external beauty. The calcareous substance of
which they are composed,—a carbonate of lime, mixed
with a minute proportion of the phosphate, according to
Professor Grant,—which, as we have already observed, re-
sembles in appearance crystal or flint-glass, is not solid,
but is excavated by a multitude of apparently empty cells,
having no connexion with each other, but set in rows and
series more or less exact. We notice this because it is the
plan upon which all the calcareous parts of the animals of
this class are modelled; the plates of the globular case of
the Sea-urchin, those of the Brittle-star, the spines of both,
the tubercles of the Cross-fish, the stems and skeletons of
the singular Pedicellarice, which we shall presently have


98 Lire, in its lowjeb forms.
occasion to notice,—all present the same structure, which
is thus eminently characteristic of the class,—a transpa-
rent, hard, brittle, crystalline deposit, hollowed into num-
berless isolated cells. These cells are sometimes so nume-
rous that the solid matter is reduced to a series of slender
bridges and attenuated pillars, when, though the beauty
is much enhanced, the fragility is in proportion.
It is interesting also to observe the flexibility which is
imparted to the long rays of the Brittle-star. Though
composed of rigid and fragile plates, a wonderful flexibility
is afforded to it by their number and arrangement; and
whoever has watched, either by its native sea-shore, or in
the tiny mimic ocean which the marine aquarium furnishes,
one of these animals twining over the shells and stones
that lie on the bottom, as it pursues its rapid but devious
course, must have been struck with the precision and ease
with which these plaited organs, all bristling over with
points and spines, catch hold of projections, and drag the
body along, in much the same manner as a man would do
if reduced to a prone position, and if all his limbs were
arms.
Perhaps our readers think we have made small progress
in our travels from the Feather-star to the Sea-urchin;
still there is an advance; and in our next chapter we hope
to shew that the journey is not so long as might be sup*
posed.


CHAPTER XI.
Echinodbemata (Star-Jishes).
Continued.
The English name of Brittle-star refers to a peculiarity
very characteristic of the stellar forms of this class of
animals,—an unhappy tendency to suicide. The eager
naturalist, in dredging for these interesting creatures, is
often annoyed and disappointed by seeing some fine spe-
cimen that comes up from the depths, crumble into frag-
ments by a spontaneous movement, the instant he endea-
vours to lay hands upon it. Professor Forbes has described
his experience of this habit in the case of Luidia fra-
gilissirna, the Lingthorn, a seven-armed species, some two
feet in expanse. The passage has been often quoted, but
it is so graphic, so descriptive, so full of humour, that we
must beg permission to enliven our pages with it:—
"The first time I ever took one of these creatures, I
succeeded in getting it into the boat entire. Never hav-
ing seen one before, and quite unconscious of its suicidal
powers, I spread it out ou a rowing-bench, the better to
admire its form and colours. On attempting to remove
it for preservation, to my horror and disappointment I
found only an assemblage of rejected members. My con-


100
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FOHMS.
servative endeavours were all neutralised by its destructive
exertions, and it is now badly represented in my cabinet
by an armless disk and a diskless arm. Next time I went
to dredge on tbe same spot, determined not to be cheated
out of a specimen in such a way a second time, I brought
with me a bucket of cold fresh water, to which article Star-
fishes have a great antipathy. As I expected, a Luidia
came up in the dredge, a most gorgeous specimen. As it
does not generally break up before it is raised above the
Burface of the sea, cautiously and anxiously I sunk my
bucket to a level with the dredge's mouth, and proceeded
in the most gentle manner to introduce Luidia to the
purer element. Whether the cold air was too much for
him, or the sight of the bucket too terrific, I know not,
bat in a moment he proceeded to dissolve his corporation
and at every mesh of the dredge his fragments were seen
escaping. In despair I grasped at the largest, and brought
up the extremity of an arm with its terminating eye, the
spinous eyelid of which opened and closed with something
exceedingly like a wink of derision."*
The Lingthorn, by the length and slenderness of its
rays, and by the comparative minuteness of its disk, as
well as by the fragility just mentioned, bears evidences of
close relationship with the Brittle-stars; yet it truly be-
longs to another order of the class, the Star-fishes distinct-
ively so called. The surface is not here formed of angular
imbricate plates, but of a tough leathery or cartilaginous
skin, strecgthened by calcareous plates imbedded in its
substance, and more or less studded with spines or tuber-
cles. Th( Cross-fish, or Five-finger (Ur aster rubens), that
* Forbes" " Brit. Star-fishes," 13S.


STAR-FISHES.
ioi
commonest of objects on every shore, is an excellent
example of this order.
Now here we have a very evident tendency to centra-
lisation. There are five distinct radiating arms, as in the
Brittle-star; but they are massive, thick, short, and com-
paratively inflexible, while the disk or central undivided
portion bears a much greater proportion to the whole
expanse.
But a change much more remarkable has been effected
in the manner of progression. In the Feather-star, as we
have seen, the motion is truly natatory, performed by the
alternate contraction and expansion of its inflated arms,
aided, perhaps, by the lateral pinnae, with which these are
furnished. In the Sand-stars and Brittle-stars the swim-
ming faculty is lost; the animal drags itself over the
stones and even up perpendicular surfaces by its flexiblo
arms, the spines of which catch hold of every projection
and roughness. In the Star-fishes a new set of organs is
developed, highly curious in their nature, and, like all
other of the works of God, well qualified for their
office.
Let us go to the first Five-finger we see lying on the
shingle, and turn it over. We now see that each of the
five rays has a deep furrow running along its under sur-
face, proceeding from the mouth in the centre of the disk,
even to the tip of the arm. This furrow has been fanci-
fully named the ambulacrum, or avenue.
Now let us, in the plentitude of our compassion, take
the poor wretch from the stones where he lies broiling in
the burning sun, and, bearing him home, gently place him
in a glass vessel of cool sea-water. Our virtue will be its


103 LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORKS.
own reward. From each of the avenues hundreds of
filmy tubes are seen protruding, which twist and twine in
all directions, as if seeking some object to lay hold of.
Nor do they seek in vain We are supposing that the
Star-fish has been laid upon his back. Well, the extre-
mity of one of his rays presently bends itself over, so that
the pellucid tubes can reach the bottom;—they catch
hold; the arm bends still more; other tubes reach the
ground, and, in a minute or two, over turns the Star-fish
bodily, and is " as right as a trivet."
See how gently and equably he is crawling over the
bottom, gliding uniformly along like a snail! But how
does he do it 1 What is the nature of his locomotion 1
Stay! we shall see; for he has reached the edge of his
prison-bottom, and is beginning to mount up the glassy
side. Watch him now, through the transparent medium,
and you will understand the secret.
The flexible tubes, which look like so many caterpillars,
are seen to have dilated extremities, which, when brought
into coutact with the glass, are made to adhere, just on
the same principle as a truant schoolboy makes his
sucker of wetted leather stick fast to the pavement The
tubes are thrust out and drawn in at pleasure; as the
Star-fish advances, new sucker-feet are pushed onward as
far as possible, where they adhere, and drag up the body
after them; and by a succession of such apparently feeble
efforts progression is effected.
The mechanism of these sucker-feet is very simple. At
the bottom of the furrow or avenue in each ray are four
rows of minute pores, through which the suckers are pro-
truded. The base of each sucker is expanded into a little


103
globular vesicle, which lies above the pore in the interior
of the ray. The walls of this vesicle are muscular, and
therefore contractile; and it is filled with a fluid. When,
therefore, the animal wishes to protrude and extend any
given sucker, it contracts the vesicle at its base by an
effort of the will; the fluid is thus forced into the tubular
stem, which is, therefore, compelled to elongate; on the
removal of the contractile force the fluid returns to the
bladder, either by the elasticity of the tube, or rather pro-
bably by its muscular action, and the sucker is gradually
withdrawn. The adhesion of the terminal disk is another
process. This is, doubtless, effected by the pressure of
its edges to the surface, and the simultaneous retractation
of its centre, producing a vacuum, on which the surround-
ing medium presses by the law of gravity.
It is beautiful to trace the workings of the Divine Mind
in contriving, and the Divine Hand in executing, such
problems iu mechanics as these, and all for the comfort
and benefit of a creature that man tramples under his feet
when he meets with it, as not merely worthless, but an
encumbrance, whose existence is not to be tolerated!
The meanest " thing that creepeth upon the earth" has
occupied the infinite wisdom of God from all eternity;
and when His creative energy was put forth at the ap-
pointed time to call it into being, it was the object of His
infinite complacency. "And God saw every thing that
He had made, and behold it was very good." It is per-
mitted to us, in examining the same works, and discerning
a little of their perfection and fitness, to share in our
humble measure the Divine complacency.
If we inquire into the gastronomy of the Star-fish, we


104
LIFE, IX ITS LOWER FORMS.
shall find it no less unique than its locomotion. The whole
tribe are the scavengers of the sea, searching out and
greedily devouring the fragments of carrion that other-
wise might infect the ocean and render it poisonous to
living animals. But besides this indiscriminate appetite,
the Star-fish has long been suspected of a dainty epicurism
in the matter of shell-fish; and old Admiralty laws in-
flicted a heavy penalty on any one who, finding a Five-
finger on the shore, did not crush it under his heel, or
throw it up beyond the reach of the tide. Difficulties, to
be sure, presented themselves in the way of a Star-fish
inclining to oyster-suppers, and a theory was, as usual,
invented to meet them. It was reported that the Star-
fish, insidiously lying in wait till the blind oyster gaped,
dexterously inserted a ray between the valves, which
being thus prevented from closing, the delicate morsel was
extracted at leisure. This would have been surprising
enough; but truth is stranger than fiction. Observation
seems to have established the following facts: The mouth
of the Uraster is destitute of teeth; but the whole oeso-
phagus, and, in fact, the stomach, are capable of being
turned inside out in the form of great vesicular lobes, and
of insinuating themselves into minute orifices. When the
animal, then, wishes to feed on a bivalve mollusk, it clasps
it, valves and all, with its embracing rays, holding fast
its prey though the waves may roll it about like a
ball. Meanwhile the stomach is pouted out, and finding
access into the interior at the points where the valves
slightly gape, it manages to dilate itself within, and ex-
tract the nutritive juices of the victim; the process
being aided, as is supposed, by the injection of a poison-


106
LIFE, IS IT* LOWER I'OItilS.
for the protrusion of the sucker-feet, and five pairs alter-
nating with the former are inter-ambulacral.* Both kinds
are studded on their exterior surface with tubercles or
strong warts, each of which is crowned with a little globu- .
lar highly-polished bead. On every one of these beads
played during life a spine with a hollow at its base, form-
ing with its supporting spherule a ball-and-socket joint of
perfect construct ion, the spine being kept in its place, and
yet allowed great extent and freedom of motion, by means
of muscles that bound its dilated pedestal to the surround-
ing integuments.
Professor Forbes informs us that in a moderate-sized
Urchin there are sixty-two rows of pores in each of the
ten avenues, and as there are three pairs of pores in each
row, the total number of pores is 3720; but as each sucker
occupies a pair of pores, the number of suckers is 1860.
He says, also, that there are above three hundred plates
of one kind, and nearly as many of another, all dovetailing
together with the greatest nicety and regularity, bearing
on their surfaces above 4000 spines, each spine perfect in
itself, and of a complicated structure, and having a free
movement in its socket. "Truly," he adds, "the skill
of the Great Architect of Nature is not less displayed in
* The author of "Tanks and their Inhabitants," having done us the honour
of quoting the above description, says :—'' We do not attempt to explain these
terms, for they appear to be arbitrary, and certainly have nothing to do with
walking, as the word would seem to imply." The word ambulacrum means not
a walking vrgan, but a walking-place, a walk or alley in a garden. The plates
which carry the tubercles are comparable to the flower-beds of the garden, and
the narrow spaces, pierced with pores, are the walks between. It is true, the
walking organs, the suckers, are protruded from these spaces, and from thence
only, but we believe the name ambulacra was given long before it was known
that these organs were connected with locomotion.


ST.Ul-liallLi.
107
the construction of a Sea-urchin than in the building up
of a world !" *
Time and space would not permit us to dwell on all the
marvels of creative power displayed in these animals; in
the elaborate system of muscular bauds and loops and cap-
sules; the singularly complex array of arched teeth con-
stituting what is called "Aristotle's lantern:" the appa-
ratus of water-ducts that resemble the mains and pipes of
our great metropolis; the forest of chased and fluted and
sculptured spines that bristle and nod upon the surface!
But there are some points of further interest which we
must not pass over, though we will defer their considera-
tion to a future chapter.
« Op. cit., ut


CHAPTER XII.
Eohinodermata (Star-Jishai).
Continued.
We have already, in the course of these pages, brought
before the reader some singular phases and conditions of
Life; and have shewn that its forms and conditions are
not at all confined to those limits which circumscribe it
in the nobler creatures. One of the most remarkable of
Buch curiosities of vitality now comes before our notice in
the existence of certain organs, so unique in their forms
and functions, so apparently independent of the animal's
will in their movements, that it was long a matter of dis-
pute whether they were truly organic appendages or
merely parasitic intruders. We refer to the Pedicellaria
of the Urchins and Star-fishes.
If we look at a Sea-urchin disporting himself in his
clear element, we shall presently see among the spines
and suckers, even with the naked eye, objects that are
distinct from either. We had better apply a lens to them,
however, when we shall discover their appearance and
actions distinctly. They are very numerous, crowded
irregularly on most parts of the skin, but especially around
the mouth. There are several forms; but in general they


•TAR-FISHES.
109
may be described as a thick head, cleft into three divisions,
and set on a long, slender, flexible stalk. Through a por-
tion only of the stalk passes an inflexible shelly support
like a bone, but there is left a considerable part which is
perfectly soft, flexible, and highly contractile; and by the
motions of this part, the massive head is thrown about in
all directions with great vivacity.
Now let us look at the heads of these strange nodding
creatures. The largest sort has a head shaped something
like a sugar-loaf, split from the apex to the base into three
lobes, which gape widely and close together with most
ferocious snappings. These openings and shuttings of
the threefold jaws are constantly going on, fitfully and
without any regularity or agreement; and most curious
it is to watch them, and to endeavour (though without
success) to discover what possible end is accomplished by
the procedure.
If we examine these bodies with high microscopic powers,
little light is afforded on the question of their special
functions, though they are thus determined to be organic
appendages of the Echinus. But new admiration is ex-
cited at their elaborate structure and finish. The head
consists principally of calcareous substance, which, as well
as the supporting column of the stalk, is penetrated with
isolated cells throughout. The bases of the three-lobed
head are articulated in the most remarkable manner; and
the lobes themselves, which are sometimes attenuated to
three slender pins, are cut along their meeting edges into
minute teeth, which fit and lock into each other with
exquisite precision. The whole body and head are in-
vested with a gelatinous flesh, in which are imbedded


110
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
minute red glands, that are common to the integument
of the whole class, and this is covered with a series of
vibratile cilia.
Conjecture has been busy upon the use of these very
curious organs in the economy of the animal; but abso-
lutely nothing is yet certainly known on the subject.
Their prehensile power is obvious; but whether this is
exercised in the way of defensive weapons, or as hands to
catch food and hand it to the mouth, is among the things
that we have yet to learn.
The Sea-urchin may be considered as the type or model
of the radiate structure, to which we have traced the gra-
dual approach from the polype-form, through the Feather-
star, which, in its pentacrine condition, retains the aspect
of a true Polype. But in nature there is a constant pro-
gression: and we must now briefly glance at the transition
from this perfection of radiism to another sort of symmetry
—bilateralism, in which there are parts which we can dis-
tinguish as right and left, dorsal and ventral, head and
tail. This symmetry now begins to appear, and hence-
forward is found to characterise the whole range of animate
existence.
On turning over stones at the lowest verge exposed by
the retiring tide,—a means of acquaintance with strange
creatures which no marine naturalist neglects whenever he
has the opportunity,—we occasionally find adhering to
them cylindrical, or rather pentagonal leathery animals,
very much resembling small cucumbers. They are the
representatives of an extensive family of this class, called
Holothuriada.
If we place one of these in water we shall see the fol-


ST All-FISHES.
Ill
lowing particulars :—It protrudes from its fore extremity a
circle of plumose tentacles, usually branched in all direc-
tions like tiny trees. Here is radiism. Down its body
run five double rows of suckers, exactly resembling in
structure and function those of the Star-fish and Urchin.
Here again is radiism. But the arrangement of the in-
ternal organs is mostly bilateral. There is a distinct an-
terior and posterior extremity. In some species two of
the double rows of suckers are undeveloped and useless
for progression, and the other three rows are placed on a
sort of flat disk, which, therefore, becomes a belly. At
length we come to species in which the suckers entirely
disappear, the body is lengthened and worm-like, and no
trace of the radiate form is left, except the circle of minute
tentacles which surround the mouth. Finally these vanish
too; and we find in the obscure Spoonworms (Thalassema),
animals of cylindrical shape, with a proboscis, having a
long furrowed appendage on one side,—one of those
debateable forms of which naturalists cannot agree in
determining the true position; some assigning it to the
Echinodermata, others placing it with the Annelida,
or Worms proper.
We have spoken of the suicidal habits of the Brittle-
stars. The Sea-cucumbers have the same unhappy ten-
dencies, but their modus operandi is different. Sir John
Dalyell has observed them lose the tentacles, with the den-
tal cylinder, the mouth, oesophagus, lower intestinal parts,
and the ovarinm, separating from within, and leaving the
body an empty sac behind. Yet it does not perish. In
three or four months all the lost parts are regenerated,
and a new funnel, composed of new branches as long as


113
LIVE, IX ITS LO A ER FORMS.
the long body of the animal, begins to exhibit the same
peculiarities as the old one, though longer time be required
to attain perfection. Other species of the Holothuria divide
spontaneously through the middle into two or more parts,
all becoming ultimately perfect by the development of
new organs. The animal may even lose and regenerate
its organs more than once.
The Sea-cucumbers are mostly small with us ;* but in
the shallow seas of the tropics they attain the size of the
juicy vegetable after which they are named. They are
esteemed as delicacies by the omnivorous Chinese; and
the fishing for them, with the subsequent processes of pre-
paring and bringing them to market, forms an important
branch of commercial industry in the Oriental seas. Some
of the species are two feet in length and 6even or eight
inches in circumference, but others are much less. The
larger sort are sometimes obtained by spearing them upon
the rocks in shallow water; but the ordinary mode of
obtaining them is by diving in from three to five fathoms,
and collecting them by hand: a man will bring up thus
eight or ten at a time. They are prepared for the market
by being split down one side, boiled, and pressed flat with
stones; then being stretched on bamboo slips, they are
dried in the sun and afterwards in smoke, and packed
away in bags. In this state the article, now called tre-
pang, is put on board the junks, and is in great demand
in China for the composition of nutritious soups, in which
that singular people so much delight. The quantity of
this article of food annually sent to China from Macassar
* Cucumoria frondosa,—the "King of the Sea-cucumbers,"—is occasionally
taken in the Shetland seas, a foot and upwards In length.


STAR-FISHES. 113
r
amounts to 8333 cwt.; the price of which varies accord-
ing to the quality (for there are more than thirty varieties
distinguished in the market), from thirty shillings sterling
to upwards of twenty guineas per cwt. The extent of the
traffic may be inferred from the number of vessels em-
ployed in it: Captain Flinders was informed, when near
the north coast of New Holland, that a fleet of sixty proas,
carrying a thousand men, had left Macassar for that coast
two months before, in search of this sea-slug: and Cap-
tain King was assured that two hundred proas annually
leave Macassar for this fishery. They sail in January,
coasting from island to island, till they reach Timor, and
thence steer for New Holland, when they scatter them-
selves in small fleets, and having fished along the coast,
return about the end of May, when the westerly monsoon
breaks up.
The changes which occur in the development of the
Echijjodermata are not less wonderful than other passages
of their history. Until lately we knew nothing of the
infancy of the Star-fishes, but Johann Miiller has, with
great skill, industry, and success, solved this problem.
The first condition of every Echinoderm is the same—an
egg like body, covered with cilia, resembling an Infuso-
rinm. Changes take place, and we presently see another
form assumed, which varies in some degree in the diffe-
rent families. We lately had the pleasure of finding in
our dip-net several little larvae of a Brittle-star—the first
that had ever been seen in our seas; and one of these we
will select for description.
A painter's long easel affords the only object with
which to compare the little creature; for it consists of


114
LIFE, IN ITJ LOWER FORMS.
four long slender calcareous rods, arranged two in front
and two behind, with connecting pieces going across in
a peculiar maimer, and meeting at the top in a slender
head.
On this shelly, fragile, and most delicate framework, as
on a skeleton, are placed the soft parts of the animal, a
clear gelatinous flesh, forming a sort of semi-oval tunic
around it, from the summit to the middle, but thence
downwards the rods individually are merely encased in
the flesh without mutual connexion. The interior of the
body displays a large cavity, into which a sort of mouth
ever and anon admits a gulp of water. Delicate cilia
cover the whole integument, and are particularly large
and strong on the flesh of the projecting rods.
The appearance of this most singular animal is very
beautiful; its colour pellucid-white, except the summit of
the apical knob, and the extremities of the greater rods,
which are of a lovely rose-colour. It swims in an upright
position, with a calm and deliberate progression. The
specimens which we have seen were not more than one-
fortieth of an inch in length.
From this form the Brittle-star is developed, but in a
manner unparalleled in any other class of animals. The
exterior figure is not gradually changed, but the star is
constructed within a particular part of the body of the
larva, " like a picture upon its canvas, or a piece of em-
broidery in its frame, and then takes up into itself the
digestive organs of the larva." The plane of the future
Star-fish is not even the plane of the larva, but one quite
independent of, and oblique to it. Strange to tell, the
young Star does not absorb into itself the body of the


•TAR-M3HM.
115
larva, which has acted as a nidus for it, but throws it off
as so much useless lumber—flesh, rods, and all!
Thus does Science continually say to us, startled by
discovery after discovery, each more strange than its pre-
decessor—
41 There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreimed of in your philosophy."
In Plate IV., some of the forms of Echinodermata are
represented. In the right-hand corner is the Rosette
Brittle-star (Ophiocoma rosula), sprawling its snake-like
arms over a rock. Beside this, on the left, the globose
crustaceous case of the Common Urchin (Echinus spluera),
denuded of its spines, displays the arrangement of its con-
stituent plates, and the form of the tubercles. Above, a
Purple-tipped Urchin (E. miliaria) is mounting the per-
pendicular rock by means of its numerous sucker-feet,
and on the right of this, swimming freely through the
water, is seen the singular pellucid larva of a Brittle-star.
The reader must be pleased, however, to understand that,
whereas all the other objects are depicted of their natural
size, this is greatly magnified; a violence to nature indis-
pensable to its representation at all, since it is really nc
larger than the hole which would be made by a fine needU
in a piece of paper, or the period which terminates thii
paragraph.


CHAPTER XIII.
Helminthia (Intestinal Worms).
Few things are more wonderful in the range of physical
science than the fact, that the bodies of living animals
form the world in which other animals pass their lives;
and few things are more calculated to humble the arro-
gance of man, and to "stain the pride of his glory," than
the knowledge that he carries about with him, and in him,
multitudes of creatures that fatten upon his flesh, dwelling
securely in the midst of his organs and tissues, and riot-
ing unmolested on his various solids and fluids. At least
eighteen or twenty species of internal parasites have been
enumerated as infesting the internal cavities and tissues
of the human body; and almost every other animal has
species peculiar to itself, as well as some which are com-
mon to several.
A few of the more characteristic of these forms we will
now briefly consider; and, repulsive as the subject un-
doubtedly is, we shall discover not a few proofs of Divine
wisdom and benevolence in the provisions made for the
sustenance and safety of vermin so unprepossessing as
these.
In the substance of the liver, or other cellular organs


INTESTINAL WORMS.
117
of the human body, there are frequently found imbedded
certain globular bodies of pearly whiteness, varying in size)
from that of a pea to that of a large orange. It is a sim-
ple bag of membrane, without any orifice or any organs,
but filled with albuminous fluid. It exhibits no sign of
life, no feeling, even when touched or irritated; but
if pricked, the contained fluid is forcibly spirted out, from
the elasticity of the membranous walls.
The increase of this creature, which is known by tha
term Acephalocystis, is peculiar. That kind most fre-
quently found in the human subject develops buds or
gemma from the internal surface, which grow into globular
sacs, and at length separate themselves and float at liberty
in the fluid of the interior. These in turn repeat the same
process, producing a progeny within themselves, and thus
successive generations are found to exist, developed one
within another, like those hollow toys which represent a
fruit, and which, on being opened, reveal a smaller of the
same kind, that another, and another, till the examiner is
tired of opening.
Now is this an animal or not? A very eminent autho-
rity, Professor Owen, thinks not. "It seems to me," he
observes, "to be most truly designated as a 'gigantic or-
ganic cell,' not as a species of animal, even of the simplest
kind."*
Yet how closely this treads on the heels of the Cysticer-
cus, such as is often found in vast numbers in the fat of
swine, communicating to it that appearance which is known
as "measly." It is a bladder in all respects like the pre-
ceding, except that at one part it is drawn off to a length-
* Comp. Anat. i. 45 (Edit. i.).


118
UFE, IN ITS LOWER FORM*.
ened point, the very extremity of which is perforated,
forming a mouth through which the juices of the animal-
tissue are absorbed into the sac. Here, then, are indubi-
table characteristics of a living independent being. Here
is a stomachal cavity in which foreign matter is assimi-
lated, and this is imbibed through a distinct mouth.
But more; a provision is needed for the attachment of
the parasite while it is thus drawing its nutriment, and this
is given in a twofold mode. First, around the sides of
the extremity of the lengthened neck are placed four oval
suckers, adapted for adhering to a smooth surface; and,
secondly, around the oval aperture there is a double circle
of minute recurved hooks, which, fixing into the surround-
ing flesh, anchor the mouth securely, while, at the same
time, by the irritation which they produce, they cause the
vital juices to flow more abundantly to the wounded part,
and thus increase the sustenance of the parasite.
Other forms differ from this chiefly in the increased
number of their organs ; the bladder, for instance, is fur-
nished with many such heads, as in that species which in-
fests the brain of sheep; or the head, if single, is a pro-
trusile proboscis, armed with many rows of recurved
spines; or, if there be but one head, and that armed with
but two rows of hooks and one series of suckers, the neck
is greatly developed and divided into a great number of
segments, while the Madder is diminished to a compara-
tively small swelling at the hinder extremity.
We are thus brought to consider that horrible pest, the
Tape-worm (Tcenia), which consists of a ribbon-like body,
formed of square flattened segments, sometimes amounting
to five hundred in number, and attaining an aggregate


INTESTINAL WORMS. 119
length of sixty, or even a hundred feet. When we remem-
ber that these enormous bodies are supported within the
intestinal canal of the higher kinds of animals—man
among the number—their history assumes a strange
interest, coming, as it does, into such close intimacy with
our own.
The joints of the Tape-worm become much smaller at
the fore part, diminishing at length so excessively as to
form a very attenuated neck, at the top of which is placed
a little globose head, furnished with a mouth, two rows of
hooks, and four suckers, in nowise differing from those
organs in the Cysticercus. A head like this, however, "sup-
ported on a neck so slender, would be quite unable to insure
secure attachment for the enormous body it is destined
to support; additional and firmer anchorage must there-
fore be provided: this provision has accordingly been
made. Upon the margin of each segment has been placed
a strong and prominent sucker, so constructed as to ad-
here with a firm gripe to the smooth walls of the intestine
where the creature has established its abode; every joint
is, therefore, safely fixed in situ, and it thus becomes no
easy matter to dislodge a worm like this from its numerous
anchorages." *
But what is extraordinary and altogether unparalleled
in the economy of the Tape-worms is this, that while, as
regards certain organs and functions, each is a single inde-
pendent animal, in others each is a compound of hundreds
of distinct animals. Thus there is but a single mouth
and a single alimentary system, while, in respect to the
reproductive apparatus, every one of the segments is a'
* Jones's Lectures on Nat. Hist., i. 162.


120
LIFE, IS ITd LOWEIt FOaMS.
perfect animal, supplied with complicated male and female
organs, and capable of producing a multitude of fertile
eggs, quite independently of all the other segments. The
segments that contain mature eggs are usually detached
from the rest, and separately expelled from the body of
the patient.
We have hitherto spoken of these different forms of
parasitic worms as so many distinct species, for so they
have, up to a late period, been considered by naturalists,
taking their places in our zoological systems unchallenged
under not only specific but distinct generic appellations. But
the observations of an eminent German physiologist, Von
Siebold, go far to prove that the Cystoid Worms are but
the earlier undeveloped stages of the Taenioid forms, and
not only so, but that these larval creatures assume quite
different forms and possess different habits according to
the kind of animal within whose body they live. That,
for example, the microscopic egg or embryo of a Tania,
evolved in the intestinal canal of a dog or cat, if taken
with food into the stomach of a rat, finds its way invariably
to the liver, and becomes a Cysticercus, while if it be
swallowed by a sheep, it travels by some recondite road to
the brain, and is transformed into that parasite so fatally
known as producing the "staggers," Ccenurus. Let either
of these now, in turn, bo swallowed by the carnivorous
quadruped, and a Tcenia is the invariable result.
But these facts are so curious that our readers may be
pleased to read the observations themselves, as recorded
by their learned author :—
"I .was the first to advance, in the second volume of
my 'Manual of Physiology,' published in 1844, the state-


INTESTINAL WOBJIS.
121
ment that the Cystoid worm, which lives as a parasite in
the livers of rats and mice (the Cysticercus fasciolaris),
was nothing but a stray Tcenia which had become vesicu-
lar, and which was in fact the Tape-worm of the Cat
(Taenia crassicollis) In the experiments made
at the Institute of the University of Breslau, these trans-
formations took place as soon as the liver of a mouse or
rat, previously ascertained to contain a Cysticercus fascio-
laris, had been devoured by a cat. In the stomach of the
cat, the livers of these rodents were digested, whilst the
worms contained in them remained unhurt; this parasite
lost the caudal vesicle filled with fluid, and was then to
be seen without a tail in the chyme of the stomach and
small intestines of the cat, where, finding itself in a suit-
able place, it became developed in the articulated form of
a Tape-worm (Tainia crassicollis) with adult sexual organs."
More recently Dr Von Siebold has obtained further re-
sults with Cysticercus pisiformis, which is frequently met
with in the coats of the intestines of the hare and rabbit.
"These Cystoid worms, the size of which did not
exceed that of a pea, and which were still contained in
the cyst of the intestinal membrane, were introduced by
means of milk into the stomachs of some young dogs, to
the number of from thirty to sixty individuals to each.
These dogs were then killed by means of chloroform at
. various intervals of time, and the contents of the sto-
mach and intestines carefully examined, when the worms
which had been swallowed as food were readily observed
in various states of development.
"Two hours after they were swallowed, all the Cystoid
worms still remained in the stomach, but in most cases


122
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
the cysts in which they had been enveloped had disap-
peared; at the same time most of the worms which had
been deprived of their cyst had also lost their terminal
vesicle, which had either been digested or still adhered in
fragments to the abdominal extremity. All the worms
found in the stomach, whether with or without their vesicle,
had their head and neck withdrawn into the body.
"Three hours after ingestion there were no longer any
worms in the stomach; they had all passed with the
chyme from this organ into the small intestine. Then,
after having lost their cyst and terminal vesicle by the
digestive action of the stomach, they all, without excep-
tion, as though feeling themselves at home, had again
pushed out the head and neck. In all, a distinct lesion
was perceptible at the abdominal extremity, at the point
where the terminal vesicle had existed.
"In dogs killed several days after the ingestion of the
Cysticerci, these worms were found greatly increased in
size; the largest had attained a length of three inches,
the smallest of one inch. The body, at first merely
wrinkled transversely, now distinctly exhibited the articu-
lations, and the point torn by the loss of the vesicle
actually presented a cicatrix.
"After twenty or twenty-five days, the worms were
several inches in length; they were articulated to the
extremity of the abdomen, and the last of their joints still
bore the cicatrix above mentioned, which was still very
perceptible; traces of sexual organs even were already to
be discovered in the posterior segments.
"At the end of eight weeks the worms had attained a
great length (the longest were from 36 to 39 inches).


INTESTINAL WORMS.
123
The sexual character of their posterior segments was com-
pletely developed, a great number of ova in a state of
maturity being contained in them. Some individuals had
already separated their last joints in a perfectly mature
state.
"In the Cysticercus pisiformis thus elongated, I recog-
nise the Taenia serrata of the dog. The extremity of the
head, the form of the segments, the nature of the organs
of generation, and, above all, of the mature ova of this
worm, agreed exactly with the same parts of the Taenia
serrata. There was no longer therefore any doubt that
the Cysticercus pisiformis of the hare and rabbit is to the
Tamia serrata of the dog what the Cysticercus fasciolaris of
the mouse and rat is to the Taenia crassicollis of the eat.
"The Tamia serrata is rarely found in watch-dogs or
house-dogs, but more commonly in coursing-dogs; which
is easily explained by the fact, that the latter frequently
devour the intestines of hares and rabbits captured in the
chase, and consequently swallow the Cysticercus more fre-
quently than other dogs." *
From these and other carefully conducted observations,
it seems established that the Cystoid worms are only the
Cestoids imperfectly developed, "their bodies being en-
cysted in the caudal segment, and this being, as it were,
dropsically distended." t The development of the embryo
into the Cestoid state, or its arrest in the Cystoid, appears
to depend on the nidus in which it is lodged, and this on
the habits of the involuntary nurse; if the embryo lodge
in a herbivorous animal, it becomes only a Cystoid worm,
* Ann. des Sci. Nat. 3d aer., xrti. 877.
f Dr Carpenter. ,


124 LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
but if it pass into the carnivorous animal, it becomes
Cestoid.
Besides "the staggers," our sheep-farmers are but too
famihar with a disease that occasionally decimates their
flocks, and which they term "the rot." It chiefly attacks
the sheep when pastured in low wet meadows, and is
caused by the excessive multiplication of a worm known
as the Fluke (Distoma hepaticum), which .infests the livers
of these and other animals. It resembles a minute sole,
about an inch long, with a sucking disk at each end, each
of which was formerly supposed to include a mouth
(whence the name "double-mouth ;") but the posterior
one has been ascertained to be a simple imperforate
sucker. From the true mouth proceeds a single digestive
canal, which soon divides into two main stems, one pass-
ing down each side, and giving off secondary ramifications
as they proceed, which branch like the fingers of a hand,
or the twigs of a shrub, and thus spread over the whole
body. As all the branches are ordinarily filled with dark
bilious matter, they can be distinctly seen within the
pellucid white flesh, forming two beautifully ramifying
trees.
Closely resembling the Fluke in their soft gelatinous
flesh, their flattened form, and the ramification of their
digestive canal, are the little worms called Planarice, that
are found in great numbers on the submerged vegetation
of our rivers and ponds. They are generally minute and
black; but we have some marine species on our coasts
that are much larger, and are ornamentally tinted.
"These creatures, notwithstanding their apparent help-
lessness, are found to live on worms or insect larvee;


INTESTI.VAL WORMS.
125
neither do they scruple much, if other prey he scarce, to
eat their fellow-creatures. To accomplish this, the little
cannibals are gifted with a very curious kind of mouth;
one, indeed, which has no parallel in any other race of
beings. This mouth consists of a long fleshy funnel,
plaited like a fan, which can be folded up or spread abroad
at pleasure. Should a worm approach, this funnel is un-
folded and applied around the body of its prey, which,
thus retained, in spite of all its struggles, is soon sucked
and emptied of its juices.
"Another circumstance connected with the history of
these animals worthy of mention, is their great tenacity
of life. If a Planaria be cut in two, so trifling does the
occurrence seem, that either part moves on as if quite
unconscious of having lost its better half, and straightway
can repair the little inconvenience thus produced, the
missing portions soon growing again.
"Nay, sometimes they divide spontaneously into two
animals, each of which, perfect in all its parts, evinces all
the powers of the original being." *
An extraordinary creature was discovered by Dr Nord-
maun, infesting the gills of one of our commonest river
fishes—Cyprinus brama—and to which he gave the appro-
priate appellation of the Twin-worm (Diplozoon para-
doxum). It is not more than one-fourth of an inch in
length, but consists of two bodies, precisely resembling each
other, united by a central band, exactly in the manner of
the Siamese youths, whose exhibition excitedso much atten-
tion in England and America a few years ago. We might
have supposed that, like the human monstrosity in ques-
* Jones's " Lectures on Natural History," i. 157.


INTESTINAL WOKMS.
127
Round Worm (Ascaris lumbricoides), so frequently found
in children, is a familiar example. Professor Owen gives
some curious details of the fertility of this species, which
might well terrify us, but for the reflection with which ho
subsequently consoles us. "The ova are arranged in
the ovarian and uterine tubes, like the flowers of the
plantago, around a central stem or rachis. Thero are
fifty in each circle—that is to say, you might count fifty
ova in every transverse section of the tube. Now the
thickness of each ovum is ^th of a line, so that, in the
length of one line, there are 500 wreaths of 50 eggs each, or
25,000 eggs! The length of each division, or horn of the
uterus, is 16 feet or 2304 lines, which for the two horns
give a length of 4608 lines. The eggs, however, gradually
increase in size, so as to attain the thickness of Mh of a
line : we, therefore, have at the lower end of the horn sixty
wreaths of ova in the extent of one line. The average
number through the whole of the extraordinary extent of
the tube may be taken at 14,000 ova in each line, which
gives sixty-four millions of ova in the mature female Ascaris
lumbricoides I
"The embryo is not developed within the body in this
species; the ova may be discharged by millions, and most
of them must, in large cities, be carried into streams of
water. An extremely small proportion is ever likely to
be again introduced into the alimentary canal of that
species of animal which can afford it an appropriate habi-
tat. The "remainder of the germs doubtless serve as food
to numerous minute inhabitants of the water; and the
prolific Entozoa may thus serve these little creatures in
the same relation, as the fruitful Cerealia in the vegetable


128
LIFE, IN ITS LOWER FORMS.
kingdom stand to higher animals, and minister less to the
perpetuation of their own species than to the sustenance
of man." *
The researches of MM. Ercolani and Vella,+ on the em-
bryogeny and development of the Nematoid (thread-like)
Intestinal Worms, have revealed some details which, though
not so startling as those discovered by Dr Von Siebold on
the Tajnioids, possess considerable interest.
"The Thread Worms do not undergo a true metamor-
phosis; the changes observable in the embryo are only
phases of developments ; but as in the Taenioids the gene-
rative organs are the last formed, and are not perfect till
the complete development of the animal.
"The cessation of movement and the fluidity of the
body in the Nematoids are not sufficient signs of the death
of these animals, as they recover from this state as soon
as they are placed in warm water; even in the state of
embryos, although completely dried up, they return to life
very quickly by this means. The Nematoid worms con-
sequently die with great difficulty; the ova and embryos
are endowed with a marvellous tenacity of life; they even
exhibit signs of life after immersion for six days in alcohol
of 30 degrees.
"This tenacity of life, joined with the power of develop-
ment of the ovum when placed in circumstances different
from those in which it lives naturally, besides giving evi-
dence of new and important facts, destroys the strongest
arguments employed by many naturalists in favour of
heterogeny. J
* Comp. Anat.; i. 76. (Edit, i.)
t Comptes Rendus, 24th April 1854.
J Heterogeny, a total difference of form between parent and offspring.


INTESTINAL WORMS.
129
"The ova of the Nematoids, after passing into the bodies
of animals with their food, insinuate themselves into the
walls of the intestine, so that their presence completely
escapes detection. In this position these ova undergo a
sort of incubation, and the embryo becomes sufficiently
developed to return into the intestinal cavity, where it is
afterwards to pass its life."





PART II.
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.





CHAPTER XIV.
Annelida (Worms).
The forms of animate existence which we have briefly
examined in the previous chapters, may be likened to the
humbler ranks of society; the Vertebrata are certainly
the aristocracy; but between these thero ranges a great
middle class, the most populous, the most ingenious, and
in some respects the most interesting, of the whole. They
constitute the important divisions which naturalists term
Articolata and Mollusua.
We have alluded to the populousness of these sections!
a single subdivision of one of them (Insects) is believed
to be at least twenty times as numerous in species as all
other animals put together.*
We do not expect our readers to study technical zoology
at the breakfast-table, nor to make a dish of prawns th«
* Some years ago, an eminent zoologist gave the following table as his est!
mate of the probable number of existing specios of animals, deduced froa
facts and principles then known Later discoveries tend to increase rathe]
than to diminish the estimate.
Quadrupeds ...
... 1.20Q
Worms
. ... 2,500
Birds
... 6,800
Hadiata
. ... 1,000
Reptiles
... 1,500
Polypes, &c
. ... 1,530
Fishes ... ...
... 8,000
Testacea
. ... 4,600
Insects
... 650,000
Naked Testacea ... .
. ... 600
making an aggregate of 577,600 species. (Swainson'a "Geog. and Classif a
Quadrupeds," p. 28.)


134
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
text of a lecture ; but still, if the function of the palate
have not utterly extinguished that of the eye, they can
scarcely have picked one of those dainty animals to pieces
without having observed that it is encased in a sort of
armour composed of many rings, the edges of which over-
lap, and which thus work one within the other. This
circumstance forms the most prominent characteristic of
a grand division of living beings, which are thence called
Annulosa (ringed), or Articulata (jointed). Another
mark of distinction is that their skeleton is external; the
outer skin, hardened in most cases into a horny crust,
affording attachment to the muscles, and giving by its
solidity and resistance precision and force to their con-
tractions. In some cases, indeed, .this structure is less
obvious, the skin being rather membranous than crusta-
ceous, but even there it is more tough and leathery than
the internal parts.
But the most important distinction of all, though it is
one which is appreciated only by the anatomist, is the
condition of the nervous system. That remarkable sub-
stance, neurine—which is the material seat of all sensation,
and the proximate source of all motion, the ultimate link
of matter, whereby the spirit lays hold of it—is either
not discernible at all in the inferior creatures we have
been considering, or else exists only in the form of slen-
der threads, without any centres of accumulation. We
now no longer find it in this rudimentary condition. In
the Articulate animals there is a distinct arrangement of
the nerves, which, in general, run down the middle of the
body in two parallel cords, united at certain intervals by
knobs or aggregations of the nervous substance, called


WORMS.
135
ganglions, which send forth ramifying threads on each side,
thus distributing sensibility to all parts of the body.
There is in all these creatures a distinct head,* fur-
nished with various organs of sense ; and for the supply of
these the nervous matter is more abundant there than in
other parts, forming a thick ring round the gullet and
uniting into an enlarged ganglion above it. In confor-
mity with this concentrated condition of the nervous sys-
tem, the animals with which we have now to do display a
perfection of sense, an energy of motion, and a versatility
of instinct, which are unknown to those ranks that are
below them in the vital scale. In all these qualities, as
well as in the physical peculiarities which we have enu-
merated, there exists considerable diversity; so that the
great division before us is naturally divided into several
subordinate, but still important groups.
We cannot in these pages review every link in the vast
chain of Nature, though we may safely predicate that
there is not one which would not well repay the investi-
gation by some fresh evidence of the perfections of the
Godhead; not one which would not testify with fulness
and clearness—
"The hand that made us is divinel"
The humblest class of Articulated animals is that of the
Worms (Annelida), which are not very remotely sepa-
rated from those lengthened forms of Echinodermata,
which we lately considered. An Earth-worm or a Leech is
not, indeed, an articulate animal, strictly so called; but it
* In some of the Worms, indeed, as well as in the Rotifera, the head does
not exist in its ordinary distinct form, but the organs of sense are present,
and the exception is more apparent than real.


136 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
is an annulose one, for its body is composed of an immense
number of rings, which, partially slipping one within the
other, impart the power of alternate contraction and elon-
gation, which is so remarkable in these creatures.
Scarcely a single oyster can be dredged from deep water
—especially if the ground be rocky—which is not more
or less covered with shelly tubes, that sprawl and twist
over its surface in various contortions, so firmly adhering
to it as not to be removed without fracture. Stones,
pieces of crockery, broken glass, and all sorts of shells,
are liable to be overspread with these white pipes, after
they have been immersed a short time in the sea; and
similar structures occur, of a smaller kind, about the
pebbles that lie on the shore near low-water mark. These
are the dwellings of marine worms called Serpulm.
If we select a shell on which is seated a cluster of
these pipes, and put it into a basin of sea-water, we shall
soon be delighted with a brilliant spectacle. Let us sup-
pose the tubes to be of that kind which is about as thick
as a tobacco-pipe, which is adherent for the most part of
its length, but rears upwards at its extremity, and displays
a smooth circular mouth (Serpula contortuplicata). Down
in the depth of the interior we presently discern what
resembles a cork of a bottle, gradually pushed up till it
reaches the orifice, which it accurately fits. It is a conical
stopper, of a brilliant scarlet hue, marked with a number
of ridged lines all diverging from the centre.
The stopper still emerges, and we see that it forms the
end of a long slender stem, which is slowly pushed out to
make room for other emerging organs in the form of a
double fan of scarlet threads radiating from a sort of


WORMS.
137
collar, and arranged somewhat like two petals of a flower,
with a deep bend or sinuosity where they unite.
The extreme beauty of the display cannot but elicit
our admiration; we raise a finger to point out some par-
ticular item to a companion, when, lo ! the whole apparatus
disappears like a vision; with the speed of thought the
whole has been retracted into the pipe, the stopper enter-
ing last of all, and tightly closing the aperture
Our friend Serpula is an exceedingly prudent personage,
and will not soon emerge from his strong castle again,
after receiving such a fright as the lifted finger gave to
his sensitive ganglia; and when he does, it will not be
without great caution. Meanwhile, as we are waiting his
reappearance, we will briefly discuss some points of his
organisation.
Those beautiful fan-shaped petals are gills, the breathing
organs of the animal, whereby he derives from the sea-
water the oxygen necessary for the renewal of the blood,
which is constantly exhausted in the building-up of the
various tissues. Their situation at the anterior extremity
of the body is a wise provision, since they can by this
arrangement be periodically bathed in the surrounding
water, with the least possible exposure of the animal.
In other species, however, which do not inhabit tubes, the
gills are situated on other parts of the body. Thus iu the
common Lug (Arenicola), or Mud-worm, so well known to
every fisherman for its value as bait, the gills form little
tufts of a criftison hue on the rings of the middle part
only. While on the exquisite Leaf-worms (Phyllodoce)
they resemble heart-shaped leaves, arranged in a row on
each side throughout the entire length.


138 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
That singular stopper, of which the function is so mani-
fest, is one of a pair of tentacles; organs which in general
are exactly alike. Here, however, one is destined to close
the orifice, and as one only could perform that office, the
other is quite plain, a simple thread, while this is enlarged
into a conical plug. What wise contrivance is manifested
here!
We wondered at the extraordinary rapidity with which
the timid animal disappeared on alarm, and are curious
to know the mechanism by which it is effected. Each of
the rings of which the body is composed carries on each
side a little wart-like foot, within which is a bundle of
horny bristles, like the filaments of a hair-pencil, capable
of being protruded and withdrawn. The microscopic
structure of these is most elaborate, but we cannot detail
it here; it may be sufficient to say that it is by the pro-
trusion of these pencils in turn, which press backwards
against the sides of the tube, that the animal pushes its
foreparts out.
But the retreat requires a more powerful machinery for
its extraordinary fleetness; and this deserves a more close
investigation. On carefully examining a Serpula recently
dead, we observe, by means of a Ions, a pale yellow line
running along the upper surface of each foot, transversely
to the length of the body. This is the border of an ex-
cessively delicate membrane, and on placing it under a
high power (say 300 diameters) we are astonished at the
elaborate provision here made for prehension* This yellow
line, which cannot be appreciated by the unassisted eye,
is a small muscular ribbon, on which stand up edgewise a
multitude of what we may call combs, or rather sub-


WORMS.
139
triangular plates. The edge of each plate is out very
regularly into six sharp teeth, which curve in one direc-
tion, and one other, curved so as to face these. The
combs stand side by side, parallel to each other, along the
whole length of the ribbon; and there are muscular bands
or fibres seen affixed to the smaller end of every plate,
which doubtless give it independent motion. We have
counted one hundred and thirty-six plates on one ribbon;
there are two ribbons on each thoracic segment, and there
are seven such segments; hence we may compute the
total number of prehensile comb-like plates to be about
one thousand nine hundred, each of which is wielded by
muscles at the will of the animal; while, as each plate
carries seven teeth, there are between thirteen and four-
teen thousand teeth hooked into the minute cavities aud
roughnesses of the interior surface of the cell, when the
animal chooses to descend. No wonder, with so many
muscles wielding so many grappling hooks, that the re-
treat is so rapidly effected!
The bundles of bristles which line the wart-like feet,
are very extensively found in this class of animals; and
in some species they exhibit strange and singular forms,
resembling the fantastic but formidable weapons of some
semi-savage people. Tims in a fiat scaly worm (Poli/noe),
common enough under stones at the water's edge, the
armoury consists of several sorts of weapons. First, there
are long lances made like scythe-blades set on a staff,
with a hook at the tip to capture the fleeing foe, and
bring him within reach of the blade. Among them are
others of similar shnpe, but with the edge cut into deli-
cate slanting notches, which rim along the sides of the


HO LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FOBM3.
blade, like those on the edge of our reaping-hooks. These
are chiefly the weapons of the lower bundle ; those of the

Polynoe—(with its lances magnijled.)
upper are still more imposing. The outmost are short,
curved clubs, armed with a row of shark's teeth to make
them more fatal; these surround a cluster of spears, the
long heads of which are furnished with a double row of
the same appendages; and lengthened scimitars, the
curved edges of which are cut into teeth like a saw. To
add to the effect, imagine that all these weapons are
forged out of the clearest glass instead of steel; that the
larger bundles may contain about fifty, and the smaller
half as many, each; that there are four bundles on every
segment, and that the body is composed of twenty-five
such segments; and you will have a tolerable idea of the
garniture and armature of this little worm, that grubs
about in the mud at low-water mark.
Some of the Worms, both of the sea, and of fresh-
waters, manifest a singular power of self-multiplication.
In one or two species of Syllis, and in some of the genus


WORMS. 141
Nais, the last segment of the body increases in size, and
becomes marked with segments, which grow more and
more distinct; in time, a head begins to form at the ante-
rior end, which is furnished with antennae. At length
this strangely-made animal breaks off from the parent,
and enters upon an independent existence. The facts
have been denied; but we can give the testimony of per-
sonal observation to their truth, having witnessed the
process in both the genera above mentioned.
Many of the marine Worms are remarkable for gor-
geousness of colouring; and not a few display opaline
reflections and metallic changes of hue of great splendour.
There is a species, by no means rare on our coasts, called
the Sea-Mouse (Aphrodite), which rivals the humming-
birds in the magnificence of its array. It is a curious
animal in many respects. The form is unusual, at least
in this class, being somewhat oval; it is a flattened, un-
shapely creature, about au inch and a half in breadth,
and some three or four inches long, of a dusky brown hue,
except at the sides, which are clothed with a dense coat
of long, slender bristles. It is in these that the creature's
glory resides. This clothing reflects the most glowing
prismatic colours, crimson, scarlet, orange, yellow, green,
blue, and purple, ever varying according to the angle at
which the rays are reflected to the observer's eye. Thus
are verified the lines so familiar to our infancy:
"Let me be dress'd fine as I will,
Flies, worms, and flowers, exceed me still."
In another allied species the side bristles exhibit a
structure, which admirably adapts them for weapons of
defence. The tip of each bristle is a barbed spear, being


142 LIFE; IX ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
beset on two sides with numerous points directed back-
wards. As these bundles of spears are retractile, however,
the tender flesh of the animal would be liable to laceration
when they are withdrawn into the interior of the foot;
but a beautiful provision is made to meet this emergency.
Each of tho barbed javelins is furnished with two mem-
braneous blades, between which it is enclosed, in repose;
these prevent the points from coming into contact with
its own flesh, while they readily open, and offer no impe-
diment to the extrusion of the weapon.
In the common Earth-worm (Luminous), the rings are
very numerous, and each ring is furnished with eight
retractile bristles, by means of which it traverses its long
burrows. Mr Charles Darwin has satisfactorily proved
that earth-worms are most valuable agents in fertilising
lands, especially in undisturbed pastures, gradually cover-
ing the surface with their casts, and thus forming a layer
of finely pulverised earth of the richest character. A
field which had been limed was examined after about
eighty years, when the lime was found to be evenly
covered, to the depth of thirteen inches, with this animal
mould.*
The Leeches (Hirudo, &c.) are not provided with bristles
for locomotion; but a compensation is given them in the
form of a sucking disk at each extremity. They move,
as is well known, by the alternate adhesion and detach-
ment of each sucker. The Medicinal Leech (II. medici-
nalis) performs its useful office, under the concealment of
one of these suckers; and hence its mode of action is not
generally known. Its mouth is furnished with three
* Proceed. Geol. Soc., vol. ii


WOHMS.
email semi-oval tubercles arranged in a triangle, the upper
edge of each tubercle being cut into minute but sharply
serrate teeth. When a vacuum is made beneath the an-
terior sucker, these tubercles are brought into close con-
tact with the skin of the patient: proper muscles then
move them to and fro in a saw-like fashion, when the
minute teeth presently cut through the skin and superfi-
cial vessels, and the blood flows profusely, under the at-
mospheric pressure, into the stomach of the Leech.
It is very remarkable that blood is not the natural food
of the Leech; and that the fluid which it so greedily
swallows does not pass into the intestine, but remains in
the stomach for many months; and, what is still more
curious, it does not coagulate during the whole of that
time, as it would do in an hour if exposed to the air, but
continues to retain its fluidity. Hence it has been not
unreasonably concluded that this habit is rather a special
provision ordained by the Divine mercy to render these
creatures subservient to the alleviation of human suffering
than necessary to supply the wants of the animals them-
selves.
We must not, however, suppose that the "convenience,
health, or safety" of man is the only object of the crea-
tive wisdom of God. There are numberless provisions
expressly made for the comfort and wellbeing of the in-
ferior creatures themselves; and no creature is so mean,
worthless, or humble, but it has been the object of His
paternal care in multitudinous instances, a few of which
only, doubtless, we are cognisant of. Two or three ex-
amples of benevolent foresight and curious contrivance
have been mentioned in this paper, and the enumeration


144 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
might be extended almost ad libitum: but these are suffi-
cient to shew that God cares not only for sparrows, but
even for worms also.
What, then, shall we infer from hence 1 Shall we
take up the infidel sentiment of the poet, so unjustly be-
lauded—
"He sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hcro perish or a sparrow fall;
Atoms and systems into ruin hurl'd.
And now a bubble busst, and now a world?"
Nay, rather, let our comfortable conclusion be, that which
the Lord Jesus teaches us to draw from analogous ex-
amples: "If God therefore so clothe the grass of the field,
which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall
he not much more clothe you?" "Ye are of more value
than many sparrows."


CHAPTER XV.
Myriapoda {Centipedes).
There is a small class of animals, familiar enough to all,
because several species are common in every garden,
which seem but slightly removed above the Annelida we
lately considered. If we take one of the many-ringed
sea-worms, a Nereis or a Phyllodoce, for example, and
compare it with a Scolopendra from beneath a stone, or a
Julus from a decaying tree, we shall be at once struck
with the resemblance in structure between the two forms;
the leading character in each case being that the greatly
lengthened body is composed of numerous segments, each
the counterpart of the others, and each bearing a lateral
pair of short limbs.
The limbs in the Myriapod are made of distinct joints,
which is not the case with the Annelid; the integument
of the body is of a firmer and more horny character; and
the stiff segments are separated by a thin flexible mem-
brane, so that considerable freedom of motion is allowed;
but these modifications have respect mainly to the sphere
of action of the animal, which is terrestrial; a greater
degree of firmness and compactness being necessary for
vigorous movements on the solid earth, than for those
performed in water.


146
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
Air now becomes the medium of respiration, and, ac-
cordingly, this function is carried on by a new set of
organs, called trachece. These are pipes which ramify
throughout the whole body, communicating with the at-
mosphere by certain minute orifices (spiracles), situated
one on each side of every segment.
There is considerable diversity between the animals of
this class in organic development. The feeble inert Julus
is but little elevated above the Worm; its body being
divided into forty or fifty segments, each of which carries
two pairs of minute and powerless feet. Its mouth is
furnished with a pair of horny plates, with toothed edges,
which are brought into contact by a movement from right
to left. The head bears a pair of thread-like horns, evi-
dently organs of sense; these are shadowed out in the
appendages of the heads of many Annelida; but being
now, for the first time, distinctly jointed, a new name is
given them,—that of antenna. These organs henceforth
occupy an important place in the economy of the Articu-
lata.
In the Centipede (JScolopendra), we have a much more
vigorous and formidable creature. The most obvious
change from the Julus is the concentration of its parts;
the segments are greatly reduced in number, but propor-
tionally developed in size; they are furnished with more
powerful muscles, and each bears but a single pair of
limbs, which are longer, more distinctly jointed, and en-
dowed with greater powers of motion. Besides the cutting
blades, with which the mouth is armed in common with
the Julus, the Scolopendra is endowed with peculiar
weapons of offence in the form of a pair of stout curved


CENTIPEDES.
147
pointed fangs, working transversely in front of the head.
Each of these fangs is perforated, and bears a bag of viru-
lent poison, which is infused into the wound made by the
point, exactly like the venom of the viper. The fangs
are moved by very powerful muscles, so that, wielded by
an animal of acute perceptions, and of considerable
strength and swiftness, it may be reasonably expected
that they become the ministers of speedy death to multi-
tudes of insects on which the Centipede habitually feeds.
Even man has learned to dread their power; the species
are numerous in all tropical countries, where many of
them attain a large size; not infrequently being seen a
foot in length, and an inch in breadth; the bite of these
species is much more formidable than the sting of the
Scorpion, always producing fever, and sometimes death.
As if this were not enough to make the Centipedes for-
midable, some kinds appear to be endowed with that
mysterious power, possessed by certain fishes also, of
communicating electric shocks to other creatures. A
smart discharge, quite sensible to the human nerves, is
said to be given by Geophilus electricus, a lengthened slen-
der species, not uncommon in our gardens. This same
species is also luminous in the dark, giving out a pale
blue gleam from every part of its body. We once had an
opportunity of making some observations on this interest-
ing luminous creature, which are recorded elsewhere,* and
to which wo therefore refer our readers.
The animals of this class undergo certain changes of
form in their progress from infancy to the adult condi-
tion; these, however, can scarcely be called metamor-
« Zoologist, for 1843, p. 160.


148 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
phosis. They rather consist of a progressive increase of
the number of limbs, and of segments. At birth, the
Julus is destitute of limbs, which do not appear till after
the first moult. Three pairs are now developed, and with
these the little creature must be content until the second
moult, after which it possesses seven pairs. These are
placed on the foremost segments, the posterior rings
being, as yet, destitute of limbs. The third moult occurs
when the animal is a month old; it has now twenty-two
segments, and twenty-six pairs of feet. Thirty-six pairs of
feet signalise the fourth moult; and after the fifth, there
are forty-three pairs, and thirty segments. Finally, in
the adult condition, thirty-nine segments are distinguished
in the male, and sixty-four in the female.*
*Savi.
r


CHAPTER XVI.
Insecta (Insects').
We have now to do with a host of creatures, which,
though of minute dimensions, are sufficiently conspicuous
in many aspects to have been objects of popular interest
in all ages. We find no longer the soft gelatinous bodies,
sluggish habits, and indeterminate forms, which have so
generally characterised the races through which we have
passed; but active and agile animals, of firm and solid
parts, furnished with well-appointed limbs, liberally en-
dowed with organs of sense, in full variety and perfection,
and displaying a versatility of instinct, and a measure of
intelligence that would scarcely be surpassed by the
noblest of the brute creation. The mailed and powerful
Beetle, the soaring Butterfly, the predaceous Dragon-fly,
the industrious Bee, the sagacious Ant—are representa-
tives of the Class of Insects.
The unparalleled number of species included in this
division, and the consequent abundance and variety which
exist in the details of structure and habits, render it
difficult to give anything like a popular view of the whole
Class within reasonable limits. Probably above 150,000
fpecies of Insects exist in the cabinets of European colleo-


INSECTS.
151
lenses aggregated together upon the same optic nerve.
The microscope reveals to us that the compound eye of
an Ant contains fifty lenses ; that of a Fly, four thousand;
that of a Dragon-fly, twelve thousand ; that of a Butterfly,
seventeen thousand ; and that of a species of Mordella (a
kind of beetle), the amazing number of twenty-five thou-
sand. Every one of these regular, polished, and many-
sided lenses, is the external surface of a distinct eye, fur-
nished with its own iris, and pupil, and a perfect ner-
vous apparatus. It will thus be seen that each hexagonal
facet forms a transparent horny lens, immediately behind
which is a layer of pigment diminishing to a point in the
centre, where it forms a pupil; that behind this a long
six-sided prism, answering to the crystalline and vitreous
humours in the human eye, extends, diminishing to its
lower extremity, where it rests upon the retina, or net-
work expansion of the optic nerve. Some of the minuter
details of this exquisite organisation are still matters of
conflicting opinion; but these we omit, as our purpose is
rather to convey to our readers a general idea of the
structure of this complex organ of vision. "This also
cometh forth from the Lord of Hosts, which is wonderful
in counsel and excellent in working." (Isa. xxviii. 29.)
With very few exceptions, the animals of the previous
Classes are confined to the waters; the density of such a
medium being requisite for the support of their soft and
feeble bodies. But the solid external investiture of
Insects, and their well-jointed limbs, impart to them suffi-
cient firmness and precision of motion to range the earth
and air; many species being endowed with organs which
enable them to swim, run, or fly at their pleasure. Pro-


152 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
fessor Owen thus eloquently speaks of the various powers
of these indefatigable little creatures :—
"Some traverse tho surface of the earth with a suc-
cession of steps too swift for definition; some by leaps so
extraordinary as to have excited the powers of the dyna-
mical calculator from the earliest periods. The waters
also have their insect population, some swiftly cleaving
the clear element, some gyrating on the surface, while
others creep along the bottom. Nor are the activities of
the aquatic insect confined to that lower sphere. The
Nepa, or the Dytiscus, at the same time, may possess its
organs of creeping, of burrowing, and of flight; thus, like
Milton's fiend, it is qualified for different elements, and
'Though straight, rough, dense, or rare.
With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues its way,
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.'" *
The muscular strength of insects is immense. We
once were surprised by a feat performed by a Beetle
(Oryctes maimeni) common in the United States. We had put
the insect, for want of any box at hand, beneath a quart
bottle full of milk upon a table, the hollow at the bottom
allowing him room to stand upright. Presently, to our
surprise, the bottle began slowly to move and glide along
the smooth table, propelled by the muscular power of the
imprisoned insect, and continued for some time to peram-
bulate the surface, to the astonishment of all who wit-
nessed it. The weight of the bottle and its contents could
not have been less than three pounds and a half; while
that of the beetle was about half an ounce, so that it
readily moved a weight 112 times exceeding its own. A
*Comp. Anat. i. 213.


154
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
According to the same excellent authority, the Stag
Beetle (Lucanus cervus) has been known to gnaw a hole
an inch in diameter through the side of an iron canister
in which it was confined, and on which the marks of its
jaws were distinctly visible, as proved by Mr Stephens,
who exhibited the canister at one of the meetings of the
Entomological Society.
Let us look at the powers of Insects exercised in the
act of flying. The House-flies (Musca domestica), that
wheel and play beneath the ceiling for hours together,
ordinarily move at the rate of about five feet per second;
but if excited to speed, they can dart along through thirty-
five feet in the same brief space of time Now in this
period, as Kirby and Spence observe, "a race-horse could
clear only ninety feet, which is at the rate of more than
a mile in a minute. Our little fly, in her swiftest flight,
will in the same space of time, go more than one-third of
a mile. Now compare the immense difference of the size
of the two animals (ten millions of the fly would hardly
counterpoise one racer), and how wonderful will the velo-
city of this minute creature appear! Did the fly equal
the race-horse in size, and retain its present powers in the
ratio of its magnitude, it would traverse the globe with
the rapidity of lightning."* Some of the flies that haunt
our gardens shoot along so rapidly that the eye cannot
follow them in flight.
Nor are these tiny creatures less masters of the arts of
running and leaping. De Lisle mentions a fly so minute
as almost to be invisible, which ran nearly six inches in a
second, and in that space was calculated to have made
* Introd. to Entomology.


INSECTS.
155
one thousand and eighty steps! This, according to the
calculation of Kirby and Spence, is as if a man whose
steps measured only two feet, should run at the incredible
rate of twenty miles in a minute.
Every one has had occasion to observe, not always
without an emotion of anger, the leaping powers of the
Flea (Pulex irritans). A bound of two hundred times its
own length is a common feat; as if a man should jump
twelve hundred feet, or a quarter of a mile! What a pity
that Insects were not allowed to be competitors in the
athletic games of old!
With regard to their organisation, all Insects in the
mature state are arnied with three pairs of legs ;' which
are divided into several parts, as, the hip, the thigh, the
shank, and the foot, by distinct hinge-joints: the foot
itself (tarsus') consists of several jointed pieces, and is
usually terminated by two hooks, and often furnished with
adhesive pads, or other organs accessory to locomotion.
In most of the tribes there are also wings, two pairs in
general (but in one extensive Order the hinder pair is
obliterated) ; each of these organs consists of two films of
highly elastic membrane, stretched over a frame-work of
strong tubes, as the silk of an umbrella is expanded over
i*s ribs. In the Order Coleoptera (Beetles), the fore pair
are thick, leathery, and opaque, chiefly serving as shields
to protect the hind pair in repose; and in some other
Orders they are somewhat coriaceous; while in the beau-
tiful Lepidoptera (Butterflies), the transparency of both
pairs is concealed by a covering of minute feather-like
scales, overlapping each other, reflecting various colours,
and arranged in a mosaic of inimitable beauty.


156 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
The power of these organs, so delicate and filmy in
appearance, we have before alluded to, but it may be illus-
trated by another anecdote. Leeuwenhoek has recorded
a remarkable instanoe, in which he was an eyewitness of
the comparative capabilities of the Dragon-fly and the
Swallow, as relates to the perfection of their flight. The
bird and the insect were both confined in a menagerie
about a hundred feet long; and apparently their powers
were fairly tested. The swallow was in full pursuit, but
the insect flew with such astonishing velocity, that this
bird of rapid flight and ready evolution was unable to
overtake and entrap it; the insect eluding every attempt,
and being generally six feet before it.
The organs of the mouth vary much in form and func-
tion in different insects. In a Beetle they consist of two
pairs of jaws, generally hooked and toothed, working hori-
zontally, and an upper and an under lip, closing the mouth
above and below. Each lower jaw bears one or two fila-
ments, consisting of several joints; and a similar pair is
affixed to the lower Up. These filaments are called palpi,
and are supposed to be highly endowed organs of touch.
They greatly resemble the antennce, or horns of many
joints, which project from the front of the head; but
these latter are considered to be organs of hearing.
If we look at a Gnat piercing our hand with its blood-
Bucking tube, or a Butterfly pumping up the nectar of a
flower through its spiral tongue, or a Fly dissolving grains
of sugar with the fleshy lips of its proboscis, we shall not
very readily allow them any analogy with the apparatus
of jaws and lips which we have just described. Yet great
as is the dissimilarity, it is now established, that all these


INSECTS.
157
forms of mouth are but modifications of the same model,
adapting it to different functions. The sheath, horny and
tubular in the Gnat, soft and muscular in the Fly, is the
lower lip; the piercing lancets in the former are the jaws,
which are inconspicuous in the latter. The elegant coiled
spire of the Butterfly consists of two tubes, which are the
lower jaws, greatly lengthened; and the labial palpi,
stout and hairy, stand up on each side of them : the other
essential parts can be detected only by the skill of the
anatomist.
Some of the most interesting of the phenomena which
occur in the economy of Insects, are the transformations
which they exhibit in their progress of growth; the
changes of their form being frequently so great, that it
would be impossible, but for the testimony of experience,
to avoid the conclusion that the same insect, in infancy,
youth, and adult age, belonged to widely distinct and re-
mote orders of existence. We shall enter into some
details of this interesting subject in our next chapter.


CHAPTER XVII.
Insecta (Insects).
Continued.
How delightful is the season, when the Butterflies begin
to spangle the fields and woodlands! Welcome visitants
they always are, in their airy grace and beauty; not less
welcome than the flowers on which they alight, and whose
brilliant hues and delicate petals are rivalled by their
painted and filmy wings.
"The Butterflies are come!" Yes, it sends a thrill of
pleasure through the heart, after the long dreary winter,
to see the first Butterfly of the season sailing on its broad
sylphic pinions in the warm beams of a calm April morn-
ing. Perhaps it is the pretty little Orange-tip (Manci-
pium cardamines), that attendant on early spring, coursing
along some rural lane; or the Brimstone (Gonepteryx
rhamnf), hovering over a perfumed cluster of primroses,
itself scarcely to be distinguished from one of them.
Perhaps it is the Admiral (Vanessa Atalantd), whose fine
soarlet bands afford so rich a contrast to its black velvet
wings; or the Peacock ( V. Io), with its gorgeous violet
eyes; or the Tortoise-shell (V. tirticaf), clouded with yel-


INSECTS.
159
low and orange and black,—busy among the lowly nettles,
attentive to the grand occupation that forms "The Whole
Duty of Butterflies,"—the providing for the continuance
of the race, by depositing here an egg and there an egg,
on the stems or beneath the leaves of those grim and for-
midable weeds. But even if it is one of much humbler
pretensions, the White (Pontia brassicce) of our kitchen-
garden, still it is a Butterfly, and we look upon it with a
hearty welcome, forgiving, and for the moment forgetting,
all the robbery it committed upon our cabbage before it
was born.
And these frail creatures are worthy of our kindly re-
gard, not only for their association (true children of the
sun, as they are) with all that is most lovely in scenery,
and most delightful in season, but because of their own
personal claims to our admiration. If we capture that
Bed Admiral or Peacock that is so intent upon the nettles,
what a glorious creature should we think we had obtained
if we had never seen anything like it before! How light
and papery, yet how strong and effective, are these broad
wings! with what an elegant pencil has this pattern of
beautiful colours been traced! But stay! let us look
closer at this painting, aiding our sight with a pocket-
lens. It is a most exquisite mosaic, fashioned out of
innumerable coloured pieces, of regular shape and ar-
rangement.
If we look at our fingers' ends with which we have
touched, though ever so lightly, these pencilled surfaces,
we see that some of the colouring is transferred to them;
and if we have pressed the wing, as in seizing it for the
purpose of capture, we find that the finger presents the


160 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
pattern of the touched part in all its beauty. Now by
touching with the charged finger-end a strip of glass, and
placing this latter beneath a microscope, we discover an
extraordinary specimen of the Divine handiwork. Hun-
dreds of objects are left adhering to the glass plate, which
we know not whether to call scales or feathers. They dis-
play considerable variety of form, but the most common
is oval, or semi-oval, with a little projecting stem or quill
at one end. They are thin and flat, transparent and mem-
branous in texture, with several ribs running lengthwise,
the points of which project beyond the end of the scale.
These scales, then, produce the beautiful party-coloured
patterns of a Butterfly's wing; but of positive colour
they possess individually no trace under the microscope,
save a dull smoky appearance. It is by the separation
and reflection of the prismatic hues that they appear beau- •
tiful, but by what law some reflect none but red, some
none but yellow, some none but blue rays, we know not.
On examining the wing that has been denuded of its
coloured scales, we see a transparent, dry, brittle mem-
brane, pitted with innumerable punctures arranged in
lines; these are the depressions in which the stems of the
scales were originally planted. They were so ordered that
the extremity of one scale reposed on the base of its suc-
cessor, overlapping and concealing its stem, so that the
arrangement resembled that of tiles or slates on a roof.
We have said they are innumerable; the expression is
not literally exact, but you will think it excusable when
you hear that Le'euwenhoek computed the number of
scales on a Silkworm Moth (Bombyx mori), to exec"1
400,000; and those which bespangle the wings of the


INSECTS. 161
great tropical Moths and Butterflies, some of which expand
eight or nine inches, must be vastly more numerous,
since the size of the scales does not at all depend on the
dimensions of the wing.
The whole Class of Insects is subject to metamorphosis;
that is, the same individual animal in the course of its
progress from infancy to adult age assumes an appearance
and form, with organs both external and internal, different
at different stages of its life. In none of the Orders are
these transformations more remarkable than in that which
we are now considering, the elegant Order Lepidoptera,
the Butterflies and Moths.
The parent Butterfly, seeking on restless wing for the
plant which shall form a suitable food for her unborn
young, at length lays on its leaf an egg, cementing the
tiny atom to its surface by a natural glue, which imme-
diately hardens. In a few weeks a minute Caterpillar
breaks from the prison, and frequently commences exist-
ence by devouring with its powerful jaws the horny egg-
shell which it has just vacated. But vegetable matter is
its proper diet, and, by the providence of its mother, it
finds its habitation cast on a plant which is suitable for
its nourishment; it is like an ox placed in the midst of
an unbounded pasture.
The little worm feeds, and feeds, and feeds, with won-
derful voracity: it does nothing else in short, and conse-
quently grows with rapidity. It soon finds its skin too
strait for it, for this can stretch only to a certain extent,
and has no power of actual growth as ours has, and the
homy parts, as the head and feet, cannot even expand,
being quite rigid. What must be done? It splits its


162
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
Bkin and throws it off; a new one, soft and expansile,
having been prepared beneath it. This presently hardens,
and when by the rapid growth of the Caterpillar this is
stretched to its utmost capacity, it also is split and cast
off; and a similar process is repeated four or five times in
succession.
By this time the insect has attained its full size ; it has
not yet, indeed, finished life, but it will need to eat nc
more; all its nourishment is taken in the Caterpij^ir state,
which it now prepares to quit for that of the Chrysalis.
No one would have recognised the worm-like Caterpillai
as the offspring of the aerial Butterfly; perhaps one mighl
say, without a figure, "He is so changed that his owr
mother would not have known him," but the character ir
which the masquerader next appears is as little like either
Look at the stiff Chrysalis, all points and angles, im-
moveable except for a slight wriggle in his armour, tiec
up to the stalk of a plant, like a knave to a whipping-post
and say what he is like! Certes, you will not guess (sup
posing you are not of the illuminati) either Caterpillar 01
Butterfly.
The process of transformation is well worthy of being
witnessed, and we will describe it as we once had the
pleasure of observing it, in the case of one of those beau-
tiful largo species known as Swallow-tails. It was ar
American Butterfly, but so very closely allied to our fin<
native species the Papilio Machaon, and the scarce P.
Podalirius, that should you ever be so fortunate as tc
witness the transformations of either of these magnifi-
cent insects, you will see that the one process is the exac
counterpart of the other.


164
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FOIiMS.
through; gradually extending the slit forwards,til\ the head
was split and separated, and backwards for several rings.
The skin was then gradually pushed down: we had won-
dered how it would get through this part of the business,
for the weight of the Caterpillar pressed the silken girth
very tightly round the body; but there seemed no real
difficulty ; the loose skin being worked backwards by the
motion of the segments. When it was pushed down to
the extremity, the tail of the Chrysalis was thrust out
underneath, and pressed upwards to take hold of the little
knob of silk; this being done, the old skin was jerked off
by the writhing of the body. The silken cord was now
round the body, between the sixth and seventh rings, and
the Chrysalis twisted and turned, till it got the girth
three rings nearer the head, about the middle of the wing-
cases; the skin was so soft and the silk so slender, that
it cut into the wing-cases, so far as to be invisible, but
no ill resulted from this circumstance to the perfect
Butterfly.
The newly transformed Chrysalis is soft, with the skin
resembling in consistence wetted parchment; its shape is
not very remote from that of the Caterpillar; in the
course of an hour or two, however, it materially alters its
form. Some of its segments contract and condense, pro-
minent angles appear, the skin roughens and becomes
very rigid, and the creature has assumed the condition in
which it will pass a sort of torpid vegetative existence,
through some nine or ten months in the year, or even
more.
In the case of which we are speaking, the transition to
the Chrysalis state occurred near the end of August, and


INSECTS.
IG5
it was not until the middle of July of the following year
that the Butterfly was matured.
When this period of second birth approaches,—so apt
an emblem of the resurrection, that the ancient Greeks,
who used the same term (ft^i?) psyche) to signify a but-
terfly and a soul,.called the resurrection "the hope of
worms,"—it is manifested by a change in the appearance
of the Chrysalis. The skin becomes very thin and fragile,
and, for some days before the exclusion, the colours, spots,
and marks of the perfect Butterfly are distinctly per-
ceptible, through the transparent integument, but all in
miniature. i
At length the hour arrives; the Chrysalis, which for
some hours has appeared uneasy, wriggling, and apparently
inflating its body, succeeds in splitting the thin and brittle
skin of the back. The imprisoned Butterfly pushes out;
the head with its palpi and antennae and its spiral tongue,
and the legs, are all drawn out of their several sheaths, the
latter limbs are thrown forward, and the insect stands on
them, weak and staggering. It rests a moment or two,
then proceeds ; the painted wings now appear, minute and
hanging against the sides like wet paper, but perfect in
their colours and markings. The Butterfly is free!
It essays to lift its wings, but these organs, all soft and
flabby as they are, are utterly unfit for flight. But see,
a change is coming over them! They are swelling irregu-
larly, crumpling up, puckering into folds here and there,
as their vessels are distending with fluids from the body.
They look hopelessly spoiled. Though small at first, they
were at least symmetrical; but now they look like pieces
of wet paper crushed up in the hand and partially opened,


166
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
and the further the work proceeds the worse it appears to
grow. But by and by, they begin to become smooth and
even again; the distension and expansion have reached to
every part in an uniform ratio, and wings of full size and
perfect form are developed, still, however, soft, flaccid,
and pendent. A quarter of an hour more removes this
defect; the elegant organs momentarily acquire rigidity;
at length the insect can raise them to an erecf position.
As soon as this is attained, the beautiful creature marches
to and fro, as if rejoicing in its new powers, and proud to
display them; but in reality testing the capabilities of
its organs, and perhaps accustoming itself, by repeatedly
opening and shutting its wings, to the practice of those
muscular movements on the force and precision of which
its flight will depend.
At length it launches into the air, and sails away
to the inviting flowers, a happy denizen of a new
element.
Processes essentially parallel with those above described
take place in the history of all Insects, though the varieties
of habit produce a certain amount of variety in the de-
tails. Not a few, as the Insects of the orders Orthoptera
and Neuroptera, are active in the pupa state; but, in
general, as in Beetles, Bees, and Flies, the creature in
this stage is motionless, swathed and helpless, like the
chrysalis of a Butterfly or Moth. Of the former condition
the Dragon-fly (Libellula) may afford us an example. The
early stages of this vigorous flier are passed beneath
the waters. The female, poising her body over the
surface of some pool, deposits her eggs, which sink to


INSECTS.
167
the bottom, where they are speedily hatched. The larva
is a somewhat uncouth, broad, and flat, olive-coloured
animal, rather spider-like, having six sprawling legs, which
crawls about the mud at the bottom of ponds, or glides
by a singular mechanism through their waters. The
hinder extremity of the body is furnished with several
leaf-like processes, capable of being brought closer toge-
ther, or opened at pleasure. These close the orifice of a
cavity, whose sides are very muscular. When the Insect
wishes to move rapidly, it opens this cavity, which thus
becomes filled with water; then, by a contraction of the
walls of the cavity, the water is forcibly ejected in a stream
as from a syringe; and, by the re-action produced by the
impact of the jet d'eau upon the surrounding fluid, the
creature shoots ahead, with its legs closely packed along
its sides.
But the most singular part of its structure is its face.
"Conceive," says the graphic and eloquent Kirby, "your
under lip to be bony instead of fleshy, and to be elongated
downwards, so as to wrap over your chin, and extend to
its bottom; that this elongation is then expanded into a
triangular convex plate, attached to it by a joint, so as to
bend upwards again, and fold over the face as high as the
nose, concealing, not only the chin and the first-mentioned
elongation, but also the mouth and part of the cheeks:
conceive, moreover, that to the end of the last-mentioned
plate are fixed two other convex ones, so broad as to cover the
whole nose and temples; that these can open at pleasure
transversely like a pair of jaws, so as to expose the nose and
mouth, and that their inner edges, where they meet, are


168 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
cut into numerous sharp teeth, and spines, or armed with
one or more long and sharp claws, you will then have as
accurate an idea as my powers of description can give of
the strange conformation of the under-lip of the larva of
the tribes of Libellulina (Dragon-flies), which conceal the
mouth and face precisely as I have supposed a similar con-
struction of your lips would do yours. You will probably
admit that your own visage would present an appearance
not very engaging while concealed by such a mask ; but it
would strike still more awe into the spectators were they
to see you first open the two upper jaw-like plates, which
would project from your temples like the blinders of a
horse; and next, having, by means of the joint at your
chin, let down the whole apparatus, and uncovered your
face, employ thein in seizing any food that presented itself,
and conveying it to your mouth."
Such is the larva, from which the pupa does not differ
in any respect, except that the rudiments of the future
wings are seen budding out from the thorax. It is no
less active, no less fierce, no less voracious than the larva.
When the time of its transformation approaches, it crawls
out of the water up some aquatic plant, or on a twig upon
the bank, where it remains a while for the skin to dry.
Presently, a crack appears down the back, and the fly
begins to emerge, as represented in the lower left-hand
figure of the accompanying engraving. As soon as the
feet are free, it invariably bends backward, and hangs with
its head downward, as if exhausted, for some minutes. *
Then it rears itself up, catches hold of the twig with its
hooked feet, and draws the extremity of its body out of
the pupa-case, leaving the latter firmly fixed by its own


INSECTS.
163
feet to the support. The wings are minute, soft, and dense,
but they soon expand (as described in the case of the



Transformations of Dragon-fly.
Butterfly), aud acquire the firmness, transparency, and
gloss which are so admirable in the perfect Insect
t


INSECTS.
171
They have learned that the industrious Bees, impelled by
nature to live in society, combine to form a common
structure of cells, for the reception of the eggs and young,
which are to form the future commonwealth, and the
store of food which is necessary for their nutrition. This
'work is to be formed out of wax—a substance that does
not exist as yet, but which is to be elaborated by a natu-
ral chemistry from the bodies of the Bees themselves.
The cells are perfect hexagons, divided from each other
by the thinnest possible walls that the material will sus-
tain, and built in double series, the bottom-point of cne
heing the point between the bases of three others, which
open in the opposite direction. Now, it is found by ob-
servation, that the walls are not built up in those thin
plates, which we see them to be when perfected; but, on
the contrary, that the wax is laid down in rounded knobs,
out of which the cells are then excavated by the jaws of
the workers, each one knowing exactly, by her wondrous
instinct, how much may be pared away, without breaking
into the domains of her fellow-artificers, who are similarly
excavating on every side of her.
But the labours of the Hive-Bee, though truly admir-
tion of this very beautiful theorem and at last demonstrated that, among all
kinds of cells with pyramidal bases, that would require the least quantity of
material which should have its base composed of three rhombs, the angles of
which should measure respectively 109° 26' and 70' 34'. M. Maraldi, another
eminent naturalist, had in the meanwhile calculated, with as much accuracy
as he was able, the real an les met with in the cell of the Bee, which he had
estimated, the former at 109° 28', the latter at 70° 32', leaving only two minutes
of difference between the calculation and the result of measurement; and more
recent researches, conducted with the delicate instruments of moder n science,
have shewn even that slight discrepancy to be erroneous, and proved that the
figures pointed out by mathematical research, and those adopted by the insect-
labourer, are precisely identical.— Jones's "Nat. Hist, of Anim.," ii. 235.)


172
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
able, are equalled, if not indeed surpassed, by those of the
social Wasps; though these latter, because they do not
minister to our wants, and perhaps, also, because of their
irascibility, are viewed with a dislike, which has tended
to avert from their architecture that measure of popular
attention which it well deserves.
The common Wasp (Vespa vulgaris) conceals her work
beneath the surface of the earth; there she builds a sub-
terranean city. We say "she," for it is observable that
the populous commonwealth which teems forth on the
uncovering of a "Wopse's nest," is exclusively the pro-
geny of one mother Wasp, which has survived the winter;
and the city was built, or at least founded, by her alone.
She first finds or makes an excavation in some hedge-
bank—a winding gallery a foot or more in length, and
an inch in diameter, opening at length into a capacious
chamber, as large as a butter-firkin, or larger. This being
prepared, she seeks her materials for building. These are
not wax, but paper. From window-sills, weather-beaten
palings, old posts, and similar sources, the industrious in-
sect collects the minute surface-fibres with her mandibles,
bruising them, and moistening them with a liquid from
her mouth, until they form a pappy substance, which is
nothing else than a true paper.
"With this material the mother Wasp begins to line the
roof of her burrow, always iuilding from above down-
wards. The round ball of fibres which she has previously
kneaded up with glue, she now forms into a leaf, walking
backwards, and spreading it out with her mandibles, her
tongue, and her feet, till it is almost as thin as tissue-
paper.


INSECTS.
173
"One sheet, however, of such paper as this would form
but a fragile ceiling, quite insufficient to prevent the
earth falling down into the nest. The Wasp, accordingly,
is not satisfied with her work till she has spread fifteen
or sixteen layers, one above the other, rendering the wall
altogether nearly two inches thick. The several layers
are not placed in contact like the layers of a piece of
pasteboard, but with small intervals or open spaces be-
tween, appearing somewhat like a grotto built with bivalve
shells, particularly when looked at on the outside. This
is probably caused by the insect working in a curvilineal
manner.
"Having finished the ceiling, she next begins to build
the first terrace of her city, which, under its protection,
she suspends horizontally, and not like the combs in a
bee-hive, in a perpendicular position. The suspension of
which we speak is also light and elegant, compared with
the more heavy union of the hive-bees' combs. It is, in
fact, a hanging floor, immoveably secured by rods of simi-
lar materials with the roof, but rather stronger. From
twelve to thirty of these rods, about an inch or less in
length, and a quarter of an inch in diameter, are con-
structed for the suspension of the terrace. They are ele-
gant in form, being made gradually narrower towards the
middle, and widening at each end, in order, no doubt, to
render their hold the stronger.
"The terrace itself is circular, and composed of an
immense number of cells, formed of the paper already de-
scribed, and of almost the same size and form as those of
a honeycomb, each being a perfect hexagon, mathemati-
cally exact, and every hair's-breadth of the space com-


174
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
pletely filled. These cells, however, are never used as
honey-pots by Wasps, as they are by Bees; for Wasps
make no honey, and the cells are wholly appropriated to
the rearing of their young. Like other Hymenopterous
Insects, the grubs are placed with their heads downwards;
and the openings of the cells are also downwards; while
their united bottoms form a nearly uniform level, upon,
which the inhabitants of the nest may walk.
"When the foundress Wasp has completed a certain
number of cells, and deposited eggs in them, she soon in-
termits her building operations, in order to procure food
for the young grubs, which now require all her care. In
a few weeks these become perfect Wasps, and lend their
assistance in the extension of the edifice; enlarging the
original coping of the foundress by side walls, and forming
another platform of cells, suspended to the first by
columns, as that had been suspended to the ceiling.
"In this manner several platforms of combs are con-
structed, the outer walls being extended at the same time;
and, by the end of the summer, there are generally from
twelve to fifteen platforms of cells. Each contains about
1060 cells—forty-nine being contained in an inch and a
half square, and, of course, making the enormous number
of about 16,000 cells in one colony. Reaumur, upon
these data, calculates that one vespiary may produce every
year more than 30,000 Wasps, reckoning only 10,000
cells, and each serving successively for the cradle of three
generations. But, although the whole structure is built
at the expense of so much labour and ingenuity, it has
scarcely been finished before the winter sets in, when it
becomes nearly useless, and serves only for the abode of a


INSECTS.
175
few benumbed females, who abandon it on the approach
of spring, and never return; for Wasps never make use
of the same nest for more than one season." *
Some Hymenopterous Insects excavate cells, for the
habitation of their young, out of solid timber. The large
and beautiful Violet Bee (Xylocopa violacea) of Spain, for
example, bores a cylindrical hole into a post to the depth
of fifteen inches, the first inch being horizontal, and the
rest perpendicularly upwards. The sawdust which accu-
mulates from the action of her jaws, she stores up in a
little heap, for future use. Having completed her tunnel,
she lays an egg at the furthest extremity, gluing it to the
wood. She then collects the farina of flowers, and, making
it into a paste with honey, covers with it the new-laid
egg, and fills a space of the tunnel of about an inch in
length. .
Now the store of sawdust comes into request. Grain
by grain she carries it in, and, with her glutinous saliva,
cements it in the form of a ring to the tunnel wall, imme-
diately under the food she has treasured up. When this
has hardened, she carries in more grains, and cements
them in a narrower ring to the former, proceeding thus
till the whole space is occupied, and a transverse partition
is formed of cemented sawdust, which completely seals up
the egg and food in a closed chamber, and forms a floor
for the attachment of a second egg. This she provides
for and seals up also, and so proceeds till she has divided
the tunnel into ten or twelve cells, each occupied by an
egg, and sufficient food to meet the wants of the grub
until its arrival at the winged state.
* "Insect Architecture," 75


176
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
It is evident that, since the earliest-laid egg will be
hatched first, and will soonest come to maturity, it will
want its liberty before its younger brethren are ready for
theirs. But it is imprisoned at the very end of the tun-
nel; how, then, can it be freed, without destroying all the
other cells in its course 1 This emergency is provided
for. A back-door is prepared, in the shape of a gallery,
leading sideways from the furthest cell to the surface of
the post; this the young Bee has the instinct to avail
itself of; the rest following in succession, each breaking
through its own floor, and then finding a clear passage.
There is a Bee somewhat resembling the Hive-bee, but
rather stouter (Megachile centuncularis), common in sum-
mer in our gardens, which lines the tunnels that she bores
in firm earth with portions of the leaves of rose-beeches.
These «he cuts into the required patterns with inimitable
rapidity and accuracy, and forms them into thimble-like
cells within the tunnel, fitting the end of one into the
mouth of another, and storing each cell with an egg, and
the needful store of food.
But the workmanship of this species is excelled by that
of another, the Poppy Bee (Osmia papaveris). Her hole
resembles in form a Florence flask, but is no more than
one-third so large. The walls are made very smooth, and
thus prepared for her most exquisite tapestry.
The material used for this purpose, "is supplied by the
petals of the scarlet field-poppy, from which she succes-
sively cuts off small pieces of an oval shape, seizes them
between her legs, and conveys them to the nest. She
begins her work at the bottom, which she overlays with
three or four leaves in thickness, and the sides have never


INSECTS.
177
less than two. When she finds that the piece she has
brought is too large to fit the place intended, she cuts off
what is superfluous, and carries away the shreds. By
cutting the fresh petal of a poppy with a pair of scissors,
-we may perceive the difficulty of keeping the piece free
from wrinkles and shrivelling; but the Bee knows how to
spread the pieces which she uses as smooth as glass.
"When she has in this manner hung the little chamber
all round with this splendid scarlet tapestry, of which she
is not sparing, but extends it even beyond the entrance,
she then fills it with the pollen of flowers mixed with
honey, to the height of about half an inch. In this maga-
zine of provisions for her future progeny she lays an egg,
and over it folds down the tapestry of poppy-petals from
above. The upper part is then filled with earth."*
Many other examples might be given of the wonderful
instinct of Insects manifested in the construction of
dwellings, as those of the Mud-wasps (Pelopceus) of
America, the Termites of tropical Africa, and the Ants
of all countries. For these, however, we must refer our
readers to works specially devoted to the economy of
Insects.
* "Ins. Arch."68.


CHAPTEE XIX.
Insecta (Insects).
Continued.
This Class of minute animals is so immense, that it would
be impossible within our limits to give a hundredth part
of what is on record concerning them, even if we omitted
all technical details, and confined ourselves to that which
is popularly interesting. The study of the whole Class is
felt to be far too large for one human life to embrace
with any degree of completeness, and hence we hear of
men eminent as coleopterists, lepidopterists, hymenopte-
rists, &c, from their having devoted themselves to some
one or other of the subordinate groups of this vast assem-
blage. We shall just give a bird's-eye view of these
subdivisions, indicating here and there some of the more
prominent points of interest for which each is distinguished.
Chief among them stands, by universal consent, the order
of Beetles, principally because they are the most "perfect"
of Insects. By this term "perfect" as applied to struc-
ture, which has sometimes stumbled uninitiated students,
we do not, however, mean to imply that a House-fly or
a Bug is not as perfectly adapted for its mode of life as a
Beetle, nor that it is in the least degree less worthy of an


INSECTS.
179
Omnipotent Creator. The word is used by naturalists in a
technical sense, to express the degree in which we find those
peculiarities developed that constitute any particular group.
Those peculiarities of structure, for example, that make an
Insect what it is, and not a Worm or a Crustacean, are
found to be present in the greatest intensity, and in the
fullest combination, in the group of Beetles, and hence we
say that these are the most perfect of their class. A Beetle
is not more perfect as an animal than any other, but it is
a more perfect insect, or rather, more perfectly an insect.
You may very readily identify a Beetle by its mouth
being armed by two pairs of forceps-like jaws, and by its
fore-wings being hardened into leathery sheaths for the
hinder wings, and meeting in a straight line down the
centre. The technical name Coleopteua, or Sheath-wings,
expresses the latter character in Greek.
Many species of this group are pre-eminent for beauty
of colour, especially the many-coloured refulgence of bur-
nished metal, as in the Bvprestidw, and the Cetoniadice, and
the Eumolpidae, and others; and the lustre of the richest
precious stones, as in mauy of the Diamond-beetles and
others of the Curculionidtv, whose wing-sheaths under a
lens look as if they were dusted with pounded gems.
The Glow-worm, that lights our hedge-banks with its
feeble spark in the soft summer nights of July, is a Beetle,
and so is the Firefly of the West Indies, that carries a
pair of flaming lamps upon his back. The pretty scarlet
Lady-bird, that appears to have had a " favourable erup-
tion" of black buttons, is a little Beetle that every child
knows and loves; and the dreadful Death-watch, that
scratched the doom of our great-grandnjothers on their


180
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
bedposts, is one still smaller. Very few of this great
group render the slightest direct service to mankind; we
do not at this moment recollect any but the Cantharis, or
Blister-fly, which is useful in surgery.
Those insects which have the fore-wings somewhat
leathery, but less rigid than those of Beetles, and sheath-
ing the lower pair in such a way that their edges overlap
each other, are called Orthoptera, or Straight-wings. The
Locust, Grasshopper, and Cricket, all of which make a
crinking sort of music by rubbing their stiff wings in
various ways over each other, are of this sort: and so is
the Earwig, that spoils our dahlias by eating holes in
their tender petals, and the ferocious Mantis of the tropics,
that holds up its sawlike arms as if in the attitude of
prayer (hence called Prie-Dieu), but really watching to
smite down any unwary fly that may be passing, and to
seize it between the locking-spines of its fore-arms.
Who that has sauntered by a river's side in the burning
noon of summer is not familiar with the arrowy Dragonfly 1
He swoops down in wide curves, and just touches the
water in his rushing flight, and turns, and darts to and
fro, with a speed and a power that seem to mock the ring-
net of the eager insect-hunter. The sun's ray gleams from
the ample pinions as they speed past our eyes, as from
surfaces of polished steel, and the long and slender body
that is poised behind is clad in mail of green, and azure,
and gold. Ha! we have struck down the bold warrior
with our cane, and there it lies, spinning round in the
grass, and rustling its beautiful wings, with tremulous
vibrations, in its fruitless attempt to fly. Poor creature,
thou wilt fly no more! no more will the vigorous impulses


INSECTS.
181
of those filmy pinions bear thee aloft on the thin air, and
carry thee in impetuous evolutions after thy tiny prey i
But what elegant organs these wings, now still in death,
are! they are like plates of talc of extremest thinness,
through which expands a network of nerve-ribs, a lace
that no collar on fair lady's neck ever equalled; every
component thread of which is a tube communicating with
the air-pipes or lungs of the body! How appropriate is
the term Neuroptera, or Nerve-wings, for such Insects as
these!
And now we come to the "industrial" classes, to use
an expressive term of modern coinage. The Butterflies
are fine ladies that go a-shopping among the flowers, the
Beetles are the starred and jewelled nobility, the Dragon-
flies are warriors, true knights-errant furnished with the
pomp and circumstance of war; but the humble, useful,
ever busy Bee is an artisan—a representative of that class
who are "fruges producere nati;" and not less industrious
and skilful (though far from so serviceable to us) are its
cousins, the Wasp and the Ant. The architectural instincts
of these Insects we have briefly treated in the preceding
chapter.
This order is termed Hymenoptera, or Membrane-wings;
but the technical distinction between these and those
which we have just dismissed is that these possess, at least
in one sex, a horny tube at the extremity of the body,
which is sometimes connected with a poison-bag, and is
called a sting, and at others is simply an instrument for
the piercing of animal or vegetable substances, in order to
deposit eggs in them. But a much more obvious differ-
ence is found in the. character of the wings, which are so


182 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
shaped that the hind pair seem as if cut out of the fore
pair, with which they interlock by means of small hooks
during flight, so that both might readily be mistaken for
a single pair. The Dervures are commonly stouter, and
form a wider network, and the membrane is generally less
delicate than in the preceding Order.
All the forms of Insects which we have been enume-
rating agree in one point, viz., that their mouth is fur-
nished with biting jaws; those that follow, on the other
hand, have the same organs, but so modified in develop-
ment and altered in function as to constitute a sucking,
pumping, or piercing apparatus. The elegant Lepidop-
tera, or Scale-wings, including the Butterflies, which are
active by day, the sonorous-winged Hawkmoths, that
probe tubular flowers in the twilight, and the Moths,
which swarm in the early hours of night, constitute the
next order. Their chief peculiarities have been already
mentioned, and we shall therefore merely mention the
Silkworm, the caterpillar of an Oriental moth, now natu-
ralised throughout the civilised world, as another example
of an Insect to which man is largely indebted.
An extensive group is called Hemiptera, or Half-wings,
because the majority of them have the fore-wings curiously
varied in texture, the basal portions being of a stiff leathery
consistence, while the terminal part,'separated from the
former by an abrupt line, is thin and membranous. The
vast tribe of Bugs comes here, all of them repulsive and
disgusting from their rank pungent odour, but in many
cases adorned with rich colours, and often bearing the
most bizarre forms. Here, too, are usually placed, though
distinguished by some entomologists, the insects which


INSECTS.
183
produce the lac of India, and the splendid dye called
"cochineal" of tropical America. The sole possession of
the latter insect was an object of jealous care with the
government of the Spanish colonies, and so highly was it
valued by other nations, that our own East India Com-
pany offered a reward of L.6000 sterling to any one who
should be so fortunate as to introduce it into their domi-
nions. That object has been effected, and cochineal is
now cultivated in many countries.
Finally (for we need not stop to describe the few para-
site, darkness-loving, uncomely insects that belong to the
wingless orders), we have the order of Diptera, or Two-
wings, including the Gnats, the House and Flesh Flies,
whose chief distinction is indicated in their name. This
is a populous group, and many of its members display
habits and instincts which are highly entertaining; per-
haps none more so than those of the common Gnat, from
the construction of its tiny boat of eggs, to its emergence
from the water, empowered to suck our blood in its mer-
ciless practice of phlebotomy.


CHAPTER XX.
Arachnida.
(Spiders, Scorpions, and Mites..)
The common consent of mankind regards most of those
creatures of which we are about to speak with revulsion
and abhorrence; and it must be confessed that the closer
examination which the scientific naturalist bestows on
them, has only resulted in more firmly fixing upon them
the stigma of a bad character,—decidedly, undeniably had.
The poet's verdict is true, when he calls the Spider—
"Cunning and fierce—mixture abhorr'd."
Bloodthirsty and vindictive, treacherous and cruel even to
their own kind, bold and prompt in warfare, ever vigilant,
full of stratagem and. artifice, highly venomous, lurking in
darkness, endowed with curious instincts, and furnished
with many accessory means for the capture and destruc-
tion of other animals—the Spiders and Scorpions do not
move our esteem, it must be confessed; and an entomo-
logist of the highest eminence,* carrying out the notion
that the seen things of nature are symbols and pictures
of the unseen and spiritual, views in these creatures the
* Kirby, Bridgewater Treatise.


186 LIFE, IN' ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
Pulmonaria; the Harvest-men and Mites to the latter,
and are called Trachearia. ,
We naturally associate Spiders with cobwebs, and the
faculty of spinning threads from the hind part of the body
is one of their most marked characteristics; but all do
not make webs, properly so called. In the south of Europe
and in the West Indies, certain large Spiders belonging to
the genus Cteniza are called Trap-door Spiders, from their
singular architectural instincts. The female excavates a
burrow in soft earth, an inch in diameter, and six to tea
inches in depth; this is lined with a dense tapestry re-
sembling paper, formed of her silk; and the mouth is
closed with a circular door, formed of many layers of silk,
with pellets of earth interwoven into the exterior, but
which is so smooth on the interior, and so accurately
formed, as to fit the orifice with the utmost accuracy;
while a hinge of silk at one part of the circumference
allows the lid to be raised for the exit of the owner, when
it closes by its own elasticity.
Judging from specimens which we have examined in
Jamaica, the lid is always punctured with a number of
holes, such as might be made by a very fine needle; which
penetrate through the whole substance, the light being
clearly seen through each hole. We have conjectured
that the object of these orifices may be the admission of
air and light into the cell, when the lid is tightly closed,
for the comfort of the inmate. The Spider habitually
resides in her well-built house, coming abroad to hunt,
and retreating with her prey to the bottom of her domain.
In the hot parts of the world, Spiders (Mygale) closely
allied to these are found, which are often of immense size.


SPIDERS, SCORPIONS, AND MITE&
187
very hairy, and usually black, gray, or reddish-brown in
colour. These monsters prey even upon small birds; a
statement which has been denied upon insufficient grounds,
but which rests on the concurrent testimony of such men
as Perty, Stedman, Moreau de Jonnes, and Palisot de
Beauvois. They do not, however, spin nets, but steal
upon their prey, and overcome it by violence.
The Spider which is so common in our houses, filling
the angles of rooms, the crevices of old walls, and the in-
terstices of the foliage in shrubs and hedges, with a dense
web, belongs to the sedentary division. It is the Tegena-
ria domcstica of zoologists. The web is nearly horizontal,
with a tube at the inner part, within which the Spider is
ordinarily lodged, motionless, with its head projecting
and its fore feet stretched out upon the expanse of the
web,—
"And hush'd in grim repose, expects its insect prey."
No sooner does a thoughtless fly alight on the web, than
out rushes the Spider with lightning rapidity, seizes it
with her fangs, and carries it into the den to be sucked
and exhausted of its juices. Walckenaer thus describes
her domestic economy: "She constructs a bag of silk
shaped like a purse, ballasted with bits of plaster, for the
suspension of her cocoon. The orifice of the bag she
covers with a little web, on which she sits, watching
without ceasing for the appearance of her offspring. Her
cocoon, formed of fine web, contains about 150 eggs,
which are laid in May and June." *
There is a little Spider (Argyroneta aquatica), found
occasionally in ponds and rivers, which turns its spinning
* Apteres. ii. 4.


188
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
powers to a curious purpose. It forms a residence beneath
the surface of water, which, like our diving-bells, is filled
with air. It is commonly said that she first spins loose
threads, connecting the stems of water-plants, among
which she weaves a little cell, which she then manages to
fill with air successively carried down in bubbles from the
surface, in some unknown manner. But Baron Walckc-
naer, who writes from personal observation, describes the
process differently. The abdomen is covered with a close
down, which does not permit the water to wet the skin;
when beneath the surface the whole body is enveloped in
a coat of air, so that it resembles a ball of quicksilver.
"When the Arguroneta would construct its nest, it
swims to the surface,
and, head downward, pro-
trudes the extremity of
the abdomen, dilating its
spinnerets, and then
dives with rapidity. By
this process she produces
a little bubble of air,
which, independent of
the silvery coating which
envelopes the body, ap-
pears as a little globule
attached to the tail. She
swims to the stalk of
the plant to which she
would fix her nest, and, The Water-Spider.
touching it with the bubble, the air detaches itself and
adheres to the plant. The Spider then remounts to the


spiuehs, sconrioNs, and mitrs.
189
surface, collects another air-bubble, which she adds to the
former. When she has, in this manner, sufficiently en-
larged her balloon of air, she encloses it with silk of extreme
whiteness. Within this balloon, which is open below, she
then sits in a reversed position. She then stretches through
the water irregular threads, which converge to her habi-
tation, and which arrest minute water-mites and other
insects. These are seized, and carried within doors to bo
eaten, but sometimes the prey is borne to the surface, and
devoured ou the bank."*
The accuracy of these observations has beeu recently
confirmed by I'rofessor Bell.
Among the largest and best known of our native species
is the handsome Garden Spider [Epeira diadema). Its
form is familiar to every one in the latter part of summer
and autumn, its plump abdomen gray or fawn colour,
elegantly spotted with white, and its legs widely extended,
as it hangs head downward on its perpendicular web,
which is formed of concentric circles of fine thread, on a
frame-work of radiating lines. This geometric web is a
beautiful example of an insect-manufacture. Having
formed the foundation of her net and drawn the skeleton
of it, by spinning a number of rays converging to the
centre, slie next proceeds, setting out from that point, to
spin a spiral line of unad/tessive thread, like that of the rays
which it intersects, and to which she attaches it, and,
after numerous circumvolutions, finishes it at the circum-
ference. This line, together with the rays, serves as a
scaffolding to walk over, and it also keeps the rays pro-
perly stretched. Her next labour is to spin a spiral line
* Aptere, ii. 383.


190
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FOBM8.
from the circumference towards the centre, but which
stops somewhat short of it; this line is the most impor-
tant part of the snare. It consists of a fine thread studded
with minute viscid globules, like, dew, which, by their
adhesive quality, retain the insects that fly into the net.*
The skilful constructor then stations herself in the very
centre, where she patiently hangs head downward; and,
her feet extended upon the rays, " lives along the line,"
until the arrest of some unwary fly rouses her to vigorous
action. Approaching the struggling victim, she pom's
out her glutinous web in extraordinary profusion, direct-
ing it by means of her great hind feet in a broad and
dense ribbon around the fly, whose every limb is rapidly
enveloped by it. The pointed poisonous claws are now
plunged into its body, and the juices sucked at leisure.
The threads of a Spider's web, fine as they are, must
not be considered as simple filaments, but as ropes com-
posed of many strands. The spinning apparatus consists
of four little teats or warts at the hinder extremity of the
body. The upper pair of these are perforated at their
tips with innumerable holes of inconceivable minuteness,
so as to resemble a colander, and through each of these
holes proceeds a thread. The lower pair are similarly
perforated, but are set in addition with a number of pro-
minent tubes, which furnish threads also. Within the
body at this part there are several bags filled with gummy
matter, which at the will of the animal is forced through
the orifices, and hardens into elastic silk on exposure to
the air. The Spider applying the ends of the teats to any
fixed object, the gum adheres, and by her progress a cord
* BLickwall, in Zool. Journal, v. 181.


SPIDERS, SCORPION'S, AKD MITES. 191
is drawn out which consists of as many constituent threads
as there are minute orifices in her spinnerets.
Want of space forbids us to do much more than allude to
the renowned Tarantula {Lycosa tarentula) of Italy. The
bite of this Spider is reputed to produce lethargy, melan-
choly, and delirinm, which are only to be cured by the
influence of music exciting the patient to dance. It is now
pretty well established that these pretended cures were
"got up" for the sake of imposing on the credulous. The
Spider itself belongs to a very extensive genus, represented
in almost all countries, and everywhere displaying the
same habits. They live on the ground, running swiftly;
the females carrying their large egg-case about with them
during the breeding season, and refusing to part with it;
or, if forcibly deprived of it, becoming stupid, and, as it
were, stunned, utterly regardless of personal safety, till
the dear object is restored, when, in an instant, animation
and vigour return.
As there is a Spider which descends by means of its
web into the depths of the water, so there are others
which, by the same medinm, ascend to the regions of the
clouds. These are the Gossamer Spiders (Linyphia, Thai-
dion, kc), minute species, scarcely exceeding in size a
pin's head. They have the power of shooting out filmy
threads into the free air, which, on some undetermined
principle, usually thought to be connected with electricity,
rise with considerable buoyancy, and at length carry up
the little aeronaut with them. After a while, becoming
saturated with moisture, they descend, and large tracts of
ground are frequently seen, in autumn, covered with the
delicate films of flocculent web.


192 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
The last Spider which we can here notice is the little
Hunter (Salticus scenicus), which, in its zebra like marking
of black and white bands, is frequently seen leaping on
window-sills and garden fauces, in the burning sun of
summer. Its manners cannot be better described than in
the words of old Evelyn :—" Such I did frequently ob-
serve at Rome, which, espying a fly at three or four yards'
distance upon the balcony where I stood, would not make
directly to her, but crawl under the rail, till, being arrived
to the antipodes, it would steal up, seldom missing its
aim; but if it chanced to want anything of being perfectly
opposite, would at first peep, immediately slide down
again, till, taking better notice, it would come the next
time exactly upon the fly's back. But if this happened
not to be within a competent leap, then would this insect
move so softly, as the very shadow of the gnomon seemed
not to be more imperceptible, unless the fly moved; and
then would the spider move also in the same proportion,
keeping that just time with her motion, as if the same
soul had animated both these little bodies; and whether
it were forwards, backwards, or to either side, without at
all turning her body, like a well-managed horse If,
however, the capricious fly took wing and pitched upon
another place behind our huntress, then would the spider
whirl its body so nimbly about as nothing could be ima-
gined more swift; by which means she always kept the
head towards her prey, though, to appearance, as im-
moveable as if it had been a nail driven into the wood,
till, by that indiscernible progress (being arrived within
the sphere of her reach,) she made a fatal leap, swift as
lightning, upon the fly, catching him in the poll, where


SPIDERS, SCORPIONS, AND MITES.
193
she never quitted hold till her belly was full, and then
dragged the remainder home." *
There are several hideous forms of the group in tropical
climates, of which the best known is that of the Scorpions.
It is impossible to look on one of these, and not be re-
minded of a lobster—the great palps, with stout dilated
pincers, resembling closely the claws of that much more
respectable crustacean. The Scorpions are widely scat-
tered; several are found in the south of Europe, but it is
in the tropics that they most abound. The Scorpio afer
of the East Indies grows to six inches in length, and its
sting is rather a formidable affair. We once experienced
the effects of a West Indian Scorpion's venom, which
were, however, not more severe than those of a wasp's or
bee's sting. The weapon is a hooked, very acute joint at
the extremity of a six-knobbed tail, within which is a bag
of subtile poison, infused ii to the wound through two
minute slits near the point. These animals lurk under
stones and in dark crevices, living on beetles and other
insects, which they catch with their claws. Tiny species
closely resembling them, except that the tail and the
sting are wanting, are common in old books and papers,
and sometimes parasitically infesting insects. These con-
stitute the genus Chelifer, and form the connecting link
between the Scorpions and the Harvest-men or Shepherd-
spiders (Phalavgium), which are so common in autumn,
remarkable for the great slenderness and length of their
many-jointed legs, which continue to move a long time
after being separated from the body.
The tribe of Mites comprises small and generally very
* "Travels in Italy."
:


194
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
minute animals. Scarlet is their favourite livery, and it
often has the appearance of satin or velvet. The Water-
mites (Hydrachna) are merry little creatures that scuttle
along through the water of our pools, looking like tiny
globules of red sealing-wax. The Cheese-mite (Siro do-
mesticus) is so common, that possibly, gentle reader, you
may have emulated the feats of Samson, slaying thousands
at a time, and that with a jaw-bone. If you are fond of
dogs or of cattle, you have also, doubtless, made the ac-
quaintance of a vile creature called a Tick (Ixodes), which
attaches itself to the poor brutes in some spot inaccessible
to their efforts—such as behind the ears, or at the root
of the tail—and then, plunging a beak of sharp horny
lancets into the flesh, sucks the blood, till its own body is
gorged and swollen from the size of a hemp-seed to that
of a horse-bean, when it drops off to make room for another
bloodthirsty sucker. And, finally, some of these crea-
tures (Sarcoptes) of minute dimensions, burrowing beneath
the skin, become the cause of certain highly infectious
cutaneous diseases, which are unhappily too common where
cleanliness is neglected.


CHAPTER XXI.
Rotifera ( Wheel-bearers).
Nearly two centuries ago, a great impetus was given to
physical science by the application of the newly-invented
Microscope to substances so minute, that their forms, or
at least their structure, could scarcely be appreciated by
the unassisted sense. The waters were found to be teem-
ing with living creatures of multitudinous kinds, consti-
tuting what might be called a new world of life. The
excessive minuteness of these creatures being their most
obvious character, and the imperfection of the instruments
as yet in use permitting no more than a vague perception
of their exterior figure, it was natural that they should
be associated in one group, under the term Animalcules.
More precise observation has, however, determined
that, among these minute forms, are comprised animals
of very various grades of organisation. Some are the
simplest creatures known, as the Monads, of which we
treated in the first chapter of this volume; some are
not animals at all, but plants of a very low grade, endowed
with animal-like powers of locomotion; some are the larvae
of Insects; some are minute Annelida and Crustacea;
and a considerable number, of high interest from their
beauty, their sprightly motions, their perfect transparency,


196
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
and their comparatively complex structure, constitute a
peculiar class of themselves, under the title of Rotifera.
The relation which this group bears to other recognised
classes of animals, has been a matter of some debate. It
seems generally admitted that they come into the Annu-
lose Division; and we are inclined to place them above
the Annelida, having relations both with Insecta and
Crustacea, and forming a link by which the lowest forms
of theso highly-organised creatures are linked with the
highest Infusoria.
The earliest known species is one of the most abundant;
and though it is not so typical of the class as many
others, being one of the lowest forms in organisation, yet
as it exhibits, with peculiar clearness, the characteristic
movement which has given a name both to itself and its
class, it *s popularly considered as the representative of
the whole. We allude to the common Wheel-animalcule
(Rotifer vulgaris), which is found in most collections of
fresh water, and in vegetable infusions that have stood
exposed for a few days.
The form of this tiny creature, which does not exceed
soth of an inch in length, is spindle-shaped or barrel-
shaped, the lower part tapering to a slender foot, of many
joints, capable of being sheathed, telescope-fashion, one
within another, and the upper part expanding into two
circular disks set with vibrating cilia. It is the motions
of these cilia which are so peculiar and characteristic of
the whole class; they immediately arrest the attention of
the observer, who is struck with wonder to behold what
appear to be the dark teeth of two cogged-wheels, set side
by side horizontally, and running rapidly round with the


WHEEL-BEAKERS.
197
ceaseless regularity cf a complex piece of machinery. The
early observers supposed that the wheels really did rotate,
though they found it impossible to imagine how any part
of a living animal could do so. And no beholder can
wonder at their supposition, for with all our knowledge of
how the phenomena is produced, it is almost impossible,
while looking at it, to persuade ourselves that there is not
an actual rotation of the parts. The explanation of the
appearance has been already given :* it is a rotatory pro-
gression of waves caused by the rhythmical bending and
straightening of cilia, in themselves stationary. The effect
of this movement is to produce circular vortices in the
surrounding water, which are made conspicuously mani-
fest when any minute particles of solid matter are held
in suspension; as when a little carmine or indigo is
mixed with the water. In this case, the coloured atoms
are caught, and involved in the rapid rotation, passing off
after many gyrations, in a continuous thick stream from
a point between the two wheels, like the dense black
cloud of smoke that streams away behind a steamer's
funnel.
The objects of the ciliary rotation are principally two.
When the animal is stationary, adhering to foreign sub-
stances by the extremity of its foot, the vortices bring
over fresh particles of water to be respired, and whatever
atoms fit for food may bo floating in the vicinity; the
whirls leading to a central point, at which is placed the
entrance to the stomach. On the other hand, when the
nnimal relinquishes its foot-hold and commits itself to the
• pen water, the cilia act like a steamer's paddle-wheels,
* im^B 4, supra.


198 LITE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
and row it swiftly along in any given direction at the
creature's will.
The skin in this species is membranous, but somewhat
firm, folded upou itself at certain points of the circum-
ference, so that one portion can, to a certain extent, be
sheathed within another, as in the Annelida and in the
larvic of Insects. In many genera, however, the integu-
ment hardens into a firm horny shell (lorica), which takes
different forms, the most common being that of a tortoise-
like box, as in Brachionus, &c, with a wide orifice in front
(often armed with projecting spines) for the protrusion
and expansion of the ciliary wheels, and a smaller one in
the rear to give issue to the flexible-jointed foot, which
commonly terminates in two pointed toes. The structure
and composition of this integument are similar to those
of Insects and Crustacea.
Owing to the crystal transparency of these tiny crea-
tures, we are enabled, with the aid of microscopic powers,
to discern their internal structure and economy with a
clearness which no dissection would avail to shew; even
were not dissection precluded by their minuteness. They
are thus perceived to possess a comparatively high condi-
tion of organisation. The muscular, the nervous, the
digestive, and the reproductive systems are, in particular,
well developed.
Long and broad ribbons of muscular texture pass from
organ to organ, playing freely in the general cavity of the
body, their contractions and extensions plainly visible.
These are very numerous, some passing down longitudinally,
others transversely, their extremities being inserted into
the lining tunic of the integument. Sometimes the muscles


WHEEL-BEARERS.
199
take the form of slender but lengthened threads, and others
are seen, crossing, in various directions, like a net, the
ampler viscera. From this rich muscular development, the
movements of the Rotifer a are very varied and vigorous.
The nervous system is very peculiar and remarkable in
this class. It exists in a form wholly without parallel in
the Invertebrate Classes, namely, that of a single mass, well
defined, and often of immense comparative size, which, in
spite of all our reluctance, we can compare only to the
brain of the Verterrata. This great nerve-mass is placed
in the head of the animal, and commonly carries, seated
on its hinder part, a red eye (sometimes two) of simple
structure, apparently composed of a lens and a pigment
mass. The great ganglion sends off a pair of threads to
the nape, where they unite into a small ganglion below
an organ of sense, which, in its most ordinary form, is a
tubular projection, furnished with a terminal tuft of hairs,
and which appears to be the representative of the antennae
in Insects. In a few cases we have detected threads of
extreme tenacity floating in the cavity of the body, which
we believe to have a nervous character; but besides these,
we know of no offshoots from the great central brain. It
is certain that nothing answerable to the double chain of
ganglia, united by threads, and running down the length
of the body, that are so characteristic of the Annulosa
generally, exists in this class.
Scarcely less anomalous is the condition of the mouth.
Far down in the body is seen an oval pellucid mass, con-
taining a curious array of symmetrical pieces that work
vigorously on a central table, like a pair of hammers on an
anvil. Strange as is its position, this organ is nothing


200 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
else than the mouth, its place being caused by the inver-
sion of the fore parts of the body, permanently in some
species, as Rotifer, but in others, as Scandium, Furcel-
laria, &c, transiently, the mouth being brought to the
exterior when in action. The hammer-like pieces are the
representatives of the upper jaws (mandibula), and the two-
halves of the table-like piece, against which they work,
are the representatives of the lower jaws {maxillce) of
Insects.
The food, after having been subjected to the pounding
and crushing action of these hammer-like jaws, passes
off behind through a slender gullet into a capacious sto-
mach, into which bile is poured from glands (either a
single pair or very numerous) which are appended to it.
This is succeeded by an intestine, and this by a rectum,
which terminates in an orifice behind the foot.
It is a curious circumstance that there exists one genus
in this Class—hence named Asplanchna—which has no
intestine nor any posterior outlet to the stomach, the foecal
portions of the food being regurgitated and expelled from
the mouth. Still more remarkable is the fact, that all
the males in the Class are entirely destitute of the diges-
tive apparatus; neither mouth, jaws, gullet, stomach, nor
intestine being found, nor any vestiges of these organs, in
any male Eotiferon.
So far as has been observed, the sexes are separate
throughout the class. The peculiarity just noticed is
not the only one that distinguishes the sexes. The male
Rotifera are invariably smaller, less fully organised, and
more short-lived than the females; they commonly have
scarcely any resemblance to their partners, though the


WHEEL-BEARERS. 201
males of all the species have a very close similarity to each
other.
The females produce and deposit, one at a time, very
large oval eggs, enclosed in a brittle shell. The young
appear in the perfect form, being subject to no metamor-
phosis, and for the most part with all their organs com-
plete. In some of the lower forms, as Stephanoceros, Me-
licerta, &c, the young are hatched in a grub-like condi-
tion, from which the tentacles, disk, &c., develop them-
selves by gemmation.
The genera just alluded to, and some others, are inca-
pable of locomotion, except in earliest infancy; the young
soon attaching themselves by the foot to some solid object.
They now secrete and throw off from the surface of their
body successive coats of gelatinous matter, which form an
erect cylindrical case around them, into which they can
wholly retire for protection, by contracting their fore parts
on alarm. In general, this tube is simply gelatinous
and transparent, except that it sometimes becomes par-
tially opaque when old, by the adhesion to its exterior
of Diaiomacece, floccose particles, &c; but in one species
(Melicerta ringens), which hence becomes invested with a
high interest, the tubular case is strengthened by a layer
of solid pellets, manufactured by the animal for the occa-
sion, and deposited, pellet by pellet, and layer upon layer,
just like the bricks in a piece of masonry.
This species is one of peculiar beauty, and any of our
young readers who possess a microscope, or have access to
one, will do well to obtain an hour's examination of it.
Fortunately, it is by no means a rare animal in still waters
where aquatic plants grow: the slender, much divided


202
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FOKMS.
leaves of Myriophyllum are pretty sure to be more or less
studded with the erect tubes, which are quite visible to the
naked eye.
On being brought under the microscope with a power
of 100 or 150 diameters, you can see a tall chimney of
a yellowish-brown hue, standing on a leaf, slightly widen-
ing from the bottom upwards, and terminating in an irre-
gular edge.- Presently, a pellucid body peeps from the
summit, like a sweep out of the chimney-top (pardon the
similitude), and, rising higher and higher, suddenly unfurls
a disk of four expansive petals, not altogether unlike those
of a Heart's-ease, but made of crystalline material, and set
round the margins with a row of those beauteous cilia,
whose dark waves chase each other in ceaseless play, up
and down, round and round, in the most charming manner.
Behind the disk, which by a bend of the upper part of
the body is brought to assume a vertical position, there is
a little hemispherical cavity on the surface, which is lined
with cilia, and this is connected by a series of cilia with
the sinus of the two great upper petals of the disk.
The ciliary wave, after making the circuit of the -disk,
passes off behind in a great current through the sinus
just alluded to, carrying with it all the floating particles
that are not fit for food, or that have not been carried into
the mouth. These particles are hurled along until they
reach the little hemispherical cavity, in which they are
caught and whirled round and round with great rapidity.
Here, too, they are probably mixed with some glutinous
secretion, and the effect of the gyration is the consolida-
tion of the particles into a little globular pellet. No sooner
is this ready, than the animal quickly bends forward its


WHEEL-BEAKERS.
203
body till the cavity touches the edge of its case, where
the globule is deposited. The erect position is now assumed
again, materials for a new globule begin to accumulate,
and in a minute or two this is ready, and is deposited beside
its predecessor ; and thus the case is swiftly built up, brick
by brick.


CHAPTER XXII.
Crustacea (Crabs and Shrimps).
The dark, mysterious world of waters hides many a
"moving creature that hath life;" and the solitary pacer
along the black line of sea-weed that bounds the domains
of earth and sea, or the curious Paul Pry that is ever and
anon peering into nooks and holes and crannies in the
surge-worn rocks, is continually surprised by some strange
being, some minim of existence it may be, uncouth and
slow, or lithe and elegant, and rapid as lightning; dull and
sombre as suits its obscure retreat, or bright and gaily-
tinted from the solar ray; some new combination or modi-
fication of organs; some novel exhibition of instinct, habit,
or function; that awakens his admiration, and, if he be
accustomed to turn from the creature to the Creator,
elicits the tribute of praise to Him who made all things
for His own glory.
The Crustacea pre-eminently make the waters their
home; they are the aquatic division of that mighty host
of living things, that range under the title of Articulata.
The Insects, Spiders, and Mites, counting their armies, as
they do, by hundreds of thousands, leave, with scarcely an
exception, the sea untouched; and though a goodly num-
ber of these are found in the fresh waters of river, lake,


CRABS AND SHRIMPS.
205
and pool, they are few compared with the vast body. The
solid earth and free air constitute their sphere of exist-
ence The Crustacea, on the other hand, though repre-
sented by a few species that crawl on the land, and more
efficiently in fresh waters, mostly range the sea, dwelling,
according to the diversity of their structure and instinct,
from the sunny surface to the unilluminated depths; from
the shallows of the shore to the boundless solitudes of the
ocean; from the genial waves of the Equator to the ice-
fields of the Pole, to "Arctos and eternal frost."
Nor let this last assertion be considered as a sounding
platitude with which to sweep the sentence round grace-
fully; for it is literally true: as far into the dreary regions
of the Pole as our bold explorers, or still hardier whale-
fishers have penetrated, they report the Arctic Sea to
swarm with small Crustacea. One little species, in par-
ticular, found in immense numbers beneath the ice, was
turned to account in the temporary sojourn of the dis-
covery expeditions in winter quarters, The men had often
noticed the shrinking of their salt meat which had been
put to soak, and a goose that had been frozen, on being
immersed to thaw, was, in the lapse of forty-eight hours,
reduced to a perfect skeleton. The officers afterwards
availed themselves of the services of these industrious
little anatomists, to obtain clean skeletons of such small
animals as they procured, merely taking the precaution of
tying the specimen in a loose bag of gauze or netting, for
the preservation of any of the smaller bones that might
be separated by the consumption of the ligaments.
In most respects, Crustacea are so much like Insects,
that the older naturalists, and the illustrious Linnaeus


206
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
among the number, arranged them under the great class
Insecta. They have, however, a greater number of limbs;
the full provision being five pairs of true feet, and three
pairs of organs, which (because of a certain ambiguity in
their function, like that useful piece of furniture of which
•we read—
"Contrived a double debt to pay,
A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day,")—
are called foot-jaws. Besides these, a great number of the
species have five or six pairs of jointed limbs attached to
the under-side of the abdomen, which are generally used
for progression, and are called false-feet. Their mouth is
furnished with three pairs of jaws and two pairs of an-
tennae. It must be borne in mind, however, that the total
complement of these members is not found present in
every species, some of them being wanting in certain
extensive groups.
The researches of a naturalist who has paid much atten-

Prawn.
tion to this class, Mr Spence Bate, have shed a flood of


CRABS AND SHH1M1 S.
207
interesting light on the office of the organs last-named.''
Any one may easily identify them in the Lobster or Prawn.
Take the latter. On each side of the long sword-like and
spiny beak that projects above the head, there is an organ
consisting of three stout joints, at the tip of which are
three threads, of which two are of great length, and formed
of numberless rings, and the third is short. These organs,
then, constitute the inner pair of antennce. Below these
there is a pair somewhat similar, but they consist each of
five joints, and one long thread, with a large flat plate on
each side. These are the outer antennae. The former are
the organs of hearing, the latter those of smelling.
In the living animal, the inner antennae are always car-
ried in an elevated posture, and are continually flirted to
and fro with a rapid jerking motion that is very peculiar,
striking the water every instant. It is very conspicuous in
the Crabs, from the shortness of the organs in question.
When next our readers, gazing on the tenants of those
wonderful marine tanks at the Zoological Gardens in the
Regent's Park, see a Crab tapping the surrounding water,
and, as it were, feeling it—they may understand that
he is trying it for the vibrations of sound: it is the action
of vigilant listening, which never relaxes its guard.
To help the perceptions of the animal, the many-jointed
filament which strikes the water is fringed with hairs of
great delicacy, standing out at right angles to the stalk,
so that the slightest vibrations cannot fail to be conveyed
to the sensorinm. This may be called the outer ear; but
in the interior of the basal joint, which is large and swollen,
thers is a cochlea, or inner ear, having calcareous walls of
* Ann. and Mag. of N. H., July 1855, p. 40.


203
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
delicate texture, to the centra of which passes the auditory
nerve.
Tha outer antenna> differ greatly from the inner in their
internal structure, though they resemble them so much
in form. In the Crabs, the basal joints form a sort of box
or compact mass, with an orifice on the side next the
mouth, closed or opened at pleasure by means of a little
door with a hinge, on the interior side of which a long
bony lever is fastened, with the necessary muscles attached
to it. In the Lobster and Prawn the door is wanting,
but the orifice is protected by a thin membrane; and in
some of the lower forms it is placed at the end of a strong
spine or projection. In all cases, however, the orifice "is
so situated that it is impossible for any food to be con-
veyed into the mouth without passing under this organ;
and of this the animal has the power to judge its suit-
ability for food by raising the operculum [or door] at will,
and exposing to it the hidden organ—the olfactory."* Who
can refrain from exclaiming, at the sight of such beautiful,
such exquisite contrivances for the safety and wellbeing
of creatures so mean, "Great and marvellous are thy
works, Lord God Almighty!"
The "crust," or skin which envelopes the body, in these
animals, differs from that of Insects, inasmuch as it gene-
rally contains a considerable portion of carbonate of lime.
In many of the smaller forms, as in the Shrimps and
Prawns, it takes the consistence of thin transparent horn;
but in the larger, as the Lobsters and Crabs, it acquires a
great density, is perfectly opaque, and of the hardness of
true shell, or even of stone. In the tips of the stout
* Bate, loc. cit. p. 44


CRABS AND SIIRIMTS.
209
claws of the Crab (Cancer pagurus) we see it at its maxi-
mum of induration.
The breathing organs furnish another point of diversity
between the Crabs and Insects. In the latter they are
air-pipes, in the former gills; always contrived, though
under many modifications of form and position, to extract
the vivifying oxygen from water, and not from the atmo-
sphere. Even the terrestrial species, as the common
Woodlouse or Button (Oniscus), that rolls itself up into a
ball in our gardens, need a certain degree of moisture to
surround them, and hence they crawl out of their damp
retreats only in wet weather. In the common Crab the
gills are those long, finger-like, pointed pyramids of whitish
substance often called "dead men's fingers," that are seen
in two groups, when the carapace or "shell" is removed.
If we examine them, we shall find each pyramid to consist
of a vast multitude of thin membranous plates closely
packed together, but yet admitting the water to flow
freely between them, which is kept in constant circulation
by means of innumerable cilia with which the surfaces
are clothed.
The increase of the race is effected only by means of
eggs, no Crustacean that we remember bringing forth its
young alive. Every one is familiar with the eggs, "spawn,"
as they are termed—of the Prawn, the mass of intensely
red globules that is carried beneath the belly, and that is
so difficult to remove. The difficulty arises from the
manner in which the false feet, all fringed as they are
with fine hairs, penetrate the mass; and thus we perceive
another use of these organs, besides that of locomotion,
already alluded to. The eggs, as they are laid, are do-


210
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
posited on the false feet, and are carried about by the
female parent until near the period of hatching. In some
of the Opossum-shrimps (Mygida) the eggs are carried in
one or two oval pouches beneath the thorax; while in the
curious little Water-fleas (Cyclopidce), and the still more
remarkable Epizoa, the eggs are carried on each side of
the tail in two oval or cylindrical bags, generally of large
size, and sometimes of such length as to exceed that of
the whole animal besides.
Like Insects, the Crustacea undergo a metamorphosis—
perhaps with one or two exceptions. No one, uninstructed,
could possibly recognise the earliest stage of the common
Shore Crab (Carcinus memos). A hemispherical carapace
or shell, not so big as a small pin's head, sends up from
its centre a long, pointed, curved spine, while another
spine curves downwards from the front beneath the body
like a beak; the eyes are without stalks; there are two
pairs of jointed feet, ending in tufts of stiff bristles; and
a long jointed body carried straight behind, which ends in
two bundles of diverging spines. Such is the grotesque
character under which our little masquerader makes his
"first appearance on any stage." After a time he drops
his outer garments, and assumes a second form—widely
different from the former, and still sufficiently remote
from the ultimate one; and it is not till the third moult
that the little creature, now grown to the size of a hemp-
seed, begins to be recognisable as a Crab; though even
now be has several stages to pass through, several doffings
of coats and trousers, before he is quite a proper Shore
Crab, comme il faut.
This periodic casting of the skin is a needful provision


212
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
material for future legs as required. "When the limb is
thrown off, the blood-vessels and nerve retract, thus leav-
ing a small cavity in the new-made surface. It is from
this cavity that the germ of the future leg springs. A
scar forms over the raw surface caused by the separation,
which afterwards forms a sheath for the young leg." "As
the growth advances, the shape of the new member be-
comes apparent, and constrictions appear, indicating the
position of the articulation; but the whole remains unpro-
1 tected by any hard covering until the next change of
shell, after which it appears in a proper case, being, how-
ever, still considerably smaller than the corresponding
claw on the opposite side of the body, although equally
perfect in all its parts." *
* Jones's "General Outline/' p. Mil


214 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
hand, the residence of another group, the Epizoa, of
which wc are speaking.
Though these two groups of parasitic animals are very
diverse in zoological rank, or, in other words, in the de-
gree of complexity which their structure exhibits, they
merge into each other by imperceptible gradations, so
that there are some intermediate forms (as there almost
always are on the confines of great groups), which it is
very difficult to arrange in either Class, because this
would involve their violent separation from near kindred.
It must bo borne in mind that our lines of demarcation
are artificial, though, for perspicuity's sake, we must
draw them somewhere.
One of the most interesting points in the economy of
these creatures is the variety which is displayed in their
armature. Deprived, for the most part, of limbs, or
having these members when present strangely disguised,
it was necessary to their existence that they should be
furnished with some means of affixing themselves firmly
to their prey, and various are the mechanical contrivances
which serve this purpose. There is a minute Worm
(Gyrodactylus) which lives upon the gills of certain species
of the Carp tribe, whose adhering disk, when viewed be-
neath the microscope, is most formidable to behold. It
is armed all around its circumference with sharp curved
hooks, while its centre is provided with a pair of much
larger hooks, all intended to be plunged deeply into the
flesh of the unfortunate fish, while the blood is sucked at
leisure. In Caligus, a creature a hundred times as large
as that just named, found on various marine fishes, the
object is effected by an array of hooked fangs and pineer-


CRABS AND SHRIMPS.
215
like claws, combined with sucking-disks, while a slender
tube pierces the flesh and pumps up the vital juices.
Chondracanthus,—which looks like a tiny doll dressed up
in a long petticoat, fantastically studded all over with
curved prickles,—clings to the gills of the John Dory by
means of its stout hooked foot-jaws, of which there are
three pairs.
More strange still is the furniture of the Lerneopoda.
Here two long arms proceed from the thorax, which,
curving forward, meet at their tips in front of the head,
and uniting, carry a knob or button, which, being thrust
into the flesh of some miserable Shark or Salmon, main-
tains the needful hold for the robber's operations. A
similar creature (Achtheres), that infests our common Perch,
has a contrivance more elaborate still: the two arms unite
as before, but the knob at the point of junction now be-
comes a bell-shaped cupping-glass, beset within its rim with
an array of recurved hooks. Hanging by means of this
grappling-iron to the gums of the fish, it allows its body
to swing without fear or danger of dislodgment, in spite
of the currents that are perpetually flowing through the
mouth and gills. In some very long and slender forms
constituting the family Penellada, parasitic upon the
bodies of fishes, as the Sprat and Anchovy, the entire head
is plunged into the tissues of the prey, sometimes into the
eye, and is retained there by a curved prong which pro-
ceeds backward from each side of the head, exactly on the
principle of an anchor. An additional firmness is secured
to the Lernea, which infests the gills of the Cod, by the
prongs or flukes of the anchor being furnished with pro-
cesses shooting off irregularly on all sides, which, being


216 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
imbedded in the flesh, like the roots of a tree in the soil,
resist all opposing influences to drag it away. This form
is one of the most bizarre of the whole; for, besides this
strange rooting head which is concealed, the exposed body-
resembles a twisted sausage, without limbs, to which the
external ovaries hang, like rolls of thread, twined loosely
together.
Every ditch and pool is tenanted by tiny nimble crea-
tures, which move through the water by a succession of
little leaps, whence they are called Water-fleas. Some-
times the ponds swarm with them to such a degree that
the fluid contents seem not water but blood, or other
strange liquid, according to the colour of the little animals.
These belong to the Order Entomostraca, and, though
small, many of them being undistinguishable without
microscopic aid, they are highly curious. Many of them
are enclosed, either wholly or in great measure, in a shell,
which takes the form of two convex plates, either soldered
together down the back, or united there by a hinge, leav-
ing the opposite edge free for the protrusion of the head
and feet. The close resemblance of the latter (Cyprididas)
to the bivalve shells of Mollusca is remarkable.
In general these little animals have but a single eye in
the middle of the forehead, which is of large size in pro-
portion, round, and generally of a brilliant red hue, glis-
tening like a ruby, so that it furnishes a beautiful study
under the microscope. In the common Water-flea (Daph-
nia pulex), the eye is bluish black, evidently composed of
about twenty crystalline lenses, and though quite in-
cluded within the shell, its motions, which are quick and
partly rotatory, can be distinctly perceived.


CRABS AND SHRIMPS.
217
For the protection of the eggs in this genus there is a
peculiar provision. They are proportionally large and
few in number, and, when laid by the mother, are not
committed to the free element, but are deposited in a sort
of chamber between the valves of the shell, above the
animal's back. Here they are carried until the young are
hatched; and even for some days more the little ones
avail themselves of the same safe retreat, until they are
strong enough to get their own living.
For the most part in this Order, however, the eggs are
excluded in two large oval bags, which hang behind the
parent, one on each side, these bags (external ovaries)
being frequently each as large as the whole animal.
When matured the young escape, and the sacs slough
away, to be soon replaced by a new pair.
Cyclops—in its young and mature states. and some are deprived of
everything answering to a shield. Of the latter sort,
which is, however, the exception to the general rule, is
the Brine-shrimp (Artemia salina), which delights in the
intensely salt pits of salt-works, as at Lymingtou, and
elsewhere.*
• See an interesting account of this Shrimp in "Excelsior," vol. i., p. 22°.

Some of this race are
not enclosed in shells:
the genus just alluded to
(Cyclops) and its fellows
have the upper parts pro-
tected by a large buckler
and hollow horny rings,
much like the armour of
the Shrimp and Lobster,


218
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
The hiatus between these "Insects in Shells," as the
appellation Entomostraoa signifies, and the true Crabs, is
occupied by an immense host of creatures still small, but
geuerally of a size above that of the Water-fleas. They
are commonly jointed throughout, without any carapace
or buckler on the fore parts of the body. The terrestrial
species are arranged here, of which the garden Armadillo,
or Woodlouse, already alluded to, is a familiar example.
They approach the nearest of the Crustacea to the true
Insects. Many of them have the faculty of rolling them-
selves more or less completely into a ball, like the hedge-
hog, and apparently for the same purpose, of opposing a
passive resistance to annoyance. The Orders Isopoda and
Amphipoda, distinguished inter se principally by the struc-
ture of the limbs, are composed of these forms, which,
though they are of various interest, we are compelled sum-
marily to dismiss.
And thus we come to the most highly endowed repre-
sentatives of the Class, one of the most remarkable charac-
teristics of which is that their eyes, instead of being
imbedded in the head, or at most immoveably seated on
the surface, are placed at the tip of horny, jointed stalks,
which can be swayed about in various directions, greatly
increasing the animal's range of vision. Hence this Order
is called Podophthalma, or Stalk-eyed Crustacea.
The strangest of these are the Glass-crabs (Phyllosoma),
animals of extraordinary beauty, found abundantly in the
tropical oceans, swimming at the surface far from land.
One species has been recently taken on the British shores.
They look like an oval plate of the purest glass, with a
broad tail and slender divergent limbs, so transparent and


CEABS AND SHRIMPS.
219
colourless that they can scarcely be detected but for the
eyes, which are of a lovely blue hue, and are carried at
the end of long stalks.
Our common Prawns (Palcemon) are beautiful examples
of pellucid structure; and when alive, they form, from
this circumstance, from the dark-brown lines with which
they are adorned, from their elegant shape, and sprightly,
graceful motions, very interesting objects in a marine
Aquarium ; the more so as they are among the most easily
kept, being readily reconciled to captivity, and keeping
themselves in health and condition, without trouble to their
possessor, on the animalcules and garbage that else would
accumulate on the bottom. Their manner of feeding, by
the hand-like use of their long slender claws, which seize
the food and present it to the mouth; the brushes of hair
with which some of the feet are fringed, serving as cleansing
organs, and the effective way in which these are made to
reach all parts of the body, and to keep it scrupulously
clean; the flapping of the false feet beneath the abdomen
in the process of ordinary swimming; the occasional sud-
den stroke upon the water of the broad tail-plates when
the creature is alarmed, causing it to shoot backward with
the rapidity of thought to the distance of several inches;
the structure of the eyes, and the singular reflection of a
candle from their interior, like the flash of a policeman's
bulFs-eye; and even the internal organs, the pulsation of
the heart, and the passing of the food, as masticated,
into the stomach, can all be seen and studied to advan-
tage in these parlour pets. An hour's observation on
their organisation and their manners, if our readers have
;he opportunity of watching any marine Aquarium,


220
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
would furnish a most interesting and instructive lesson in
physiology.
The broad plates which expand like a fan at the tail of
the Prawns and Lobsters, form their great resource for
swift and sudden locomotion. The common Lobster is
said to be able to dart back by this means thirty feet, with
the fleetness of a bird on the wing; and when we think
of this feat, we must not forget the great density and
resistance of such a medium as water, in which it is
accomplished. The existence of these plates, and the
great development of the abdomen which carries them,
distinguish these from the proper Crabs, which have
no terminal plates, and in which the abdomen is re-
duced to a thin flap bent under the body and pressed
close to it, except when it is forced out of place by
the spawn, which the females deposit between it and the
thorax.
Some of the Crabs have the power of swimming, but
it is by a very different mechanism from that of the Lob-
sters; and it affords us one of the many examples which
the naturalist is constantly meeting with, of the infinite
resources of the wisdom of God in creation. In the com-
mon eatable Crab {Cancer paguins), with the exception of
the foremost pair of limbs, which are expanded into power-
ful grasping claws, all the feet are terminated by a short
sharp-pointed toe. But we have some species common on
our shores (Portunus, $•<;.), in which the hindmost legs have
the last joint dilated into a broad, thin, oval plate, which
being fringed, as are also the other joints, with stiff hairs,
constitute oars, and being worked in a peculiar manner,
row the animals swiftly to and fro, at the surface or through


222 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
forage. Once in the year they are said to come down from,
the mountains in troops, surmounting every obstacle in
their way to the sea; after depositing their eggs in the
water they return much enfeebled. Of the habits of an
East Indian species (Thelphusa cunicularis), Bishop Heber
thus speaks in his interesting Journal: "All the grass
through the Deccan generally swarms with a small Land-
crab, which burrows in the ground, and runs with con-
siderable swiftness, even when encumbered with a bundle
of food as big as itself; this food is grass, or the green
stalks of rice, and it is amusing to see the Crabs sitting,
as it were, upright to cut their hay with their sharp pin-
cers, and then waddling off with their sheaf to their holes
as quickly as their sidelong pace will carry them."
And since they are so anxious to get out of our sight, we
will take the opportunity to make our bow to them and
the whole tribe of Crabs and Shrimps together.


224
LIFE, IS If* INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
order to see their affinity, nothing more would be needful
than to detach a piece of the rock, and a fragment of the
timber, each with one or more of its tenants adhering, and
plunge both into a glass of sea-water. Presently you
would see, within the open mouth of the cone, two little
shelly pieces separate, and out comes a most exquisite
apparatus. It is something like a hand of many slender
fingers, thrust forth, opened, closed again with a clutch,
and drawn in.
Look now at the delicately coloured valves of the stalked
kind. These separate, and a similar hand is thrust out,
makes its clutch, and disappears. The structure of both,
and the action, are the same. The principal differences
are the absence of the footstalk in the former case, and
the soldering together of the valves into a conical shape.
The one represents the Acorn or Sessile Barnacles (Bala-
tiidai), the other the Stalked Barnacles (Lrpadidw).
The "hand" thrown out is a beautifully adapted
implement for the capture of prey. The Le.pas, indeed,
possesses in its footstalks a little more freedom of motion
than the firmly-soldered Balanus; but both are fixed, and
are therefore incapable of pursuing their prey. They are
hence dependent for subsistence on such minute animal-
cules as the currents of the waters may bring within reach;
and the constantly recurring clutches help to increase
these currents. But they do more. If we examine each
of the long "fingers" (cirri) which compose the hand, and
which are set in expansible pairs, we shall see that it is
composed of a great number of joints, whereby it is en-
dowed with great flexibility, and that it is also studded
with fine but stiff bristles, which stand out at right


BARNACLES.
225
angles from the surface'. Now the "fingers," expanded
like a fan, and curved like a half-open hand, make the
framework of a net, while the transverse bristles, those
of each "finger " meeting and interlocking with those of
the next, constitute a series of meshes occupying the inter-
stices, and the whole, cast out and withdrawn, form a most
efficient strainer of the water, arresting every minute
atom, living or dead, which, being then passed down to
the mouth at the bottom of the net, is either swallowed
or rejected, according as it is fit for food or worthless.
The Barnacle, whether sessile or stalked, passes through
a series of metamorphoses, which shew that, although its
appearance and instincts when adult have a great resem-
blance to those of the Mollusca, its affinities are truly
with the Crustacea. It begins life in a form exactly like
that of a young Entomostracous Crustacean, with abroad
carapace, a single eye, two pairs of antennae, three pairs
of jointed, branched, and well-bristled legs, and a forked
tail. It casts off its skin twice, undergoing, especially
at the second moult, a considerable change of figure. At
the third moult it has assumed almost the form of a
Cypris or Cythere, being enclosed in a bivalve shell, in which
the front of the head, with the antennae, is greatly de-
veloped, equalling in bulk all the rest of the body. The
single eye has become two, which are very large, and
attached to the outer arms of two bent processes like the
letters U U, which are seen within the thorax.
In this stage the little animal searches about for some
suitable spot for permanent residence; a ship's bottom, a
piece of floating timber, the back of a whale or turtle, or
the solid rock. When its selection is made, the two antennae,


226 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
which project from the shell, pour out a glutinous gum or
cement, which hardens in water, and firmly attaches them.
Henceforth the animal is a fixture, glued by the front of
its head to its support. Another moult now takes place;
the bivalve shell is thrown off, with the great eyes, and
their U-like processes, and the little Cirriped is seen in its
true form. It is now in effect a Stomapod Crustacean,
attached by its antennae, the head greatly lengthened (in
Lepas, &c), the carapace composed of several pieces (valves),
the legs modified into cirri, and made to execute their
grasping movements backwards instead of forwards, and
the whole abdomen obliterated or reduced to an incon-
spicuous rudiment


CHAPTER XXV.
POLYZOA AND TUNICATA.
We speak of the "scale of animal life," as if species rose
above species in a perfectly regular linear series, as to
their development in organisation, like the steps of a
ladder, beginning from the lowest, simplest forms of life,
and proceeding step by step, without any interruption,
till we arrive at the highest, Man, "who was made after
the image of God." This is, perhaps, the common notion
among those who have ever attempted to consider the
matter philosophically,—to contemplate Creation as a
whole, a system, a plan. And the notion is aided by our
systematic books. We are compelled, by the very nature
of a book, to treat of creatures in this linear manner; we
cannot do otherwise: we must begin with something,
then go on to something else, and so proceed till we leave
oft'. Nobody has yet invented a book in which the pages
shall run on in parallel or complex series, instead of suc-
cessive; nor would it be possible to read it otherwise
than successively, if it could be so written.
However, there is much in nature to confirm the com-
mon notion. Linear series we find everywhere. Proofs
may be found in these very pages; we have treated of


22tJ LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
animals whose structure manifestly ascends in uninter-
rupted gradation, such as that beautiful chain we noticed
in the Echinodermata, for instance. It is not that the
principle is not correct, but that it is not true throughout:
it is not the only principle.
In fact, we find, in tracing up linear gradations, points
occurring ever aud anon, where, though the series does
not break, other series link themselves on laterally, which
may themselves be pursued linearly, and which in like
manner send off side-chains, which link with other linear
series.
Let us illustrate this by a homely simile. Let us sup-
pose that a person with eyes capable of only microscopic
vision had before him a purse made of netted beads, and
was endeavouring to discover the plun on which it was
constructed. He is able to see but a single bead at a
time. He takes one and numbers it; perhaps names it:
and is conscious that another is in contact with it; this
also he numbers; and -finds a third, and a fourth, and so
on, running on in straight succession. He presently con-
cludes that he understands the structure; it is plainly a
linear series. But soon he comes to a bead—perhaps it
is number 10—which has in contact with it not only the
number 11, but also a bead at each side. If he leave the
original line, which he finds he can follow on if he so
choose, he will discover that either of these lateral beads
is the first of a series, which leads on linearly, till by and
by, after sundry offshoots and bends, he comes into the
original line at bead number 20, or 35, or 150, as the
case may be. And from the offshoots of these secondary
chains, he can pursue similar chains ever branching off


FOLYZOA AND TUNICATA,
229
and ever merging into one another. Now this would be
very puzzling; and it would not be till after a great deal
of examination in' detail, and a great deal of "putting
two and two together," and many happy guesses, that
he would at length master the idea of a quincuncial
plan—the order of a net.
But suppose that the net, instead of being woven on a
single plane, as all our nets are formed, were made to in-
crease in every possible direction—a net to be estimated
by solid instead of superficial measure, like the cells which
go to make up the pulp of an apple—how would the
plan be complicated! And how much more of protracted
observation and study would be necessary before the in-
quirer could master this model by the slow study of a
bead at a time!
Now, we do not mean to say that the great plan of
Creation can be correctly represented by a series of
meshes in a plane, nor by a mass of cells in a solid, nor
by circles set circularly till a larger circle is formed, and
many of these set to constitute a still larger circle, and
then again others still larger; we will not set our seal to
any of those models, which have been from time to time
proposed with great confidence as "the natural system."
But the comparison may help some of our readers better
to appreciate the fact, that while there is a beautiful
order in creation, the existence of which is readily dis-
covered, it is an order, not simple, but highly complex in
its relations.
A notable example of the breaking down of the linear
arrangement occurs in a series of creatures which we have
now to introduce to our readers: a series which, com-


POLYZOA AND TUNICATA. 231
animals. In the specimens which you pick up on the
beach nothing more than this would be seen, however
closely you might examine them, but in our sample just
taken out of the water, we shall be able to shew much
more. The broad orifice surrounded by spines is covered
during life with a very delicate elastic membrane, stretched
across it like the head of a drum, and towards the front
of this there is a slit with two lips in the form of a cres-
cent. From the lips of the slit a case or tube of the
thinnest possible skin passes through the middle of the
cell, within which plays a polype to and fro, capable of
protruding itself to a great extent, as well as of retreating
far into the depths of its cell, according to its pleasure.
In the latter state the animal is bent upon itself with a
double fold, somewhat like a person lying in bed with his
knees tucked up; but when it wishes to expand itself,
two pairs of muscles, which are seen in the form of threads
on each side, draw the body forward, and the skin that
envelopes it turns inside out, just as we draw off a stock-
ing. It gradually protrudes from the slit as it unfolds,
and then displays a number of long tentacles which are
regularly packed side by side in a bundle; but when these
are quite protruded, they suddenly expand into the shape of
an elegant bell or cup. The appearance of the animal is
now very beautiful; it is as clear as spun glass; the
sprightly motions which it exhibits increasing its beauty.
Each of the thread-like tentacles seems to have a double
row of black teeth, like the cogs of a watch-wheel which
run rapidly along in ceaseless course; those of one side of
the tentacle running towards the tip, and those of the
other side towards the base. Striking and beautiful,


232 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
however, as this motion is, so that it is impossible to look
at it without admiration, it is not really a progression of
any of the parts. This appearance of moving teeth is
caused by very fine cilia, the nature and action of which
have already been explained It will be sufficient here to
say, that the combined action of the whole of the cilia
forms a whirlpool, the centre of which is the mouth at the
bottom of the bell of tentacles, and that every atom that
comes within range is sucked in and engulphed.
This is a representative of a class of animals called
Polyzoa; it contains numerous genera and species differ-
ing much in the form and arrangement of the cells, but
displaying a remarkable uniformity in the structure of the
animals themselves. In many species the series of cells
a cell magnified, shewing the &
expanded poiypide, and a pical study. Take, for example,
"brrd's-head." Bicellaria ciliata, or Bugula avicu-
laria. On the outside of some of the cells in these species
there is a little tubercle, to which is articulated, by a

is attached to a foreign body only
by its base, standing erect, often
spread out and divided like a
much-cut leaf, or set in single
order, one cell springing out of the
tip of another, and bearing a third
on its extremity, with occasional
branchings, so that the total
structure resembles a tiny shrub.
Bugula avicularia(im*. size), and
Many of these creatures bear
highly curious appendages, than
which we know scarcely anything
more interesting as a microsco-


POLVZOA AND TONICATA.
233
slender joint, an organ which has been aptly compared
to the naked head of a vulture. This organ has a beak
with two mandibles, the lower of which alone is moveable,
opening and shutting like that of a bird, but with far
greater width of gape, as the lower mandible can be opened
till it extends behind in the same line with the upper.
Each edge of the mandible (in the first-named species) is
furnished with five strongly projecting teeth; the lower
has a single tooth at its point, which fits into the notch
between the terminal pair of the upper. The whole back
of the head is transversely wrinkled.
The movements of this strange appendage are in keep-
ing with its curious structure. The whole head ordinarily
sways to and fro upon the slender joint of the poll at inter-
vals of a few seconds; but besides this motion, which is
even, though rather quick, the lower mandible which com-
monly gapes to its utmost extent, now and then, at irregu-
lar intervals, closes with a strong sudden snap, much like
the snapping of a turtle's jaws, and presently again opens
and leisurely resumes its former expansion. We may dis-
tinctly see the muscles which move the lower mandible;
they occupy the position of the palate and extend back
to the inner surface of the skull, if we may borrow such
terms from the organ which this organ mimics. It is very
interesting to witness these singular motions, and it is
scarcely possible to observe them without believing that
the animal exercises an active volition in performing them.
But the observation of these "bird's heads" suggests
curious questions. Do they form a part of the polype's
organisation? Why, then, are they found attached to
some cells of a specimen while others are destitute of


234
LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
them? Why do some specimens possess them and not
others? Why are some species of a genus furnished with
them while some are destitute of any such appendages,
though essentially the same in every other respect i No
light is thrown on these questions by anatomical exami-
nation. It would appear that the animal within is quite
independent, organically, of the "bird's head," for, as Dr
Reid has remarked, and as we have personally observed iu
several species, the " bird's head" continues to move for
a considerable time after the death and decomposition of
the polype. It has been suggested that the use of the
organ is to grasp and kill passing animalcules, which theu
may be drawn into the cell by means of the ciliary cur-
rents of the tentacles; and this appears not improbable,
and receives confirmation from the toothed structure of
the beak.
The organ in question, with its singular function, may
minister to the support of the common life in another way
less direct but not less effective. The seizure of a passing
animal, and the holding of it in the tenacious grasp until
it dies, may be a means of attracting the proper prey
to the vicinity of the mouth. The presence of decom-
posing animal substance in water invariably attracts crowds
of infusory animalcules, which then breed with amazing
rapidity, so as to form a cloud of living atoms around
the decaying body, quite visible in the aggregate to the
unassisted eye, and these remain in the vicinity, playing
round and round until the organic matter is quite con-
sumed. Now, a tiny Annelid or other animal, caught by
the bird's head of a Polyzoan and tightly held, would
presently die; and though in its own substance it might
V


P0LYZ0A AND TUMCATA.
235
not yield any nutriment to the capturer, yet by becoming
the centre of a crowd of busy Infusoria, multitudes of
which would constantly be drawn into the tentacular vor-
tex and swallowed, it would be ancillary to its support,
and the organ in question would thus play no unimportant
part in the economy of the animal.
Many members of this Class possess organs analogous
to these, but differing considerably in the details of their
construction; and some are also furnished with long stiff
bristles, which, moving freely on a joint at the base, can
be made, at the will of the animal, to sweep across the
face of the cell with considerable force, perhaps with the
view to clear it of any extraneous matters that might
otherwise annoy or hurt it. Some genera, which have
no organs answering to these, inhabit membranous cells
instead of shelly ones, as Bowerbankia and its allies; in
others, the cells are immersed in a firm fleshy mass, as is
the case with the Alcyonidiadce.
From the Polyzoa the transition is easy and short to
the Tunicata. The essential structure is the same in
both. The body consists of a sac, with two orifices, usually
placed near together, or the discharging one on one side,
and a little below the receiving orifice. The circle of ten-
tacles around the mouth of the Polyzoan is reduced in the
Tunicate (Ascidia) to short processes, which guard the
orifice, and a similar circle is conferred upon the dis-
charging one. On the other hand, there now appears a
distinct breathing organ in the form of a hanging bag of
membrane, the inner surface of which is covered with
oblong cells, set in rows, and these cells are lined with
cilia, whose movements resemble those of a toothed wheel.


236 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
The breathing cilia are, in short, transferred from the pro-
jecting tentacles to the interior of the body. There is,
moreover, in the Tcnicata a pulsating heart, and also a
circulation of blood.
In many families of this Class the individual animals
are aggregated together like those we have just described,
having a common corporate, as well as an individual life.
Such are the brilliantly-coloured masses, like stars set in
coloured jelly, that are common on sea-weeds and sub-
merged stones. These are Botryllidce. We know of no
example of an isolated Polyzoan; they are all compound
animals, though in a few cases the cells stand up singly
and remotely, from the common uniting root-thread; but
in the Tunicata we find many examples of single life. Of
this sort are the strange uncouth creatures that are so
abundantly brought up by the dredger from the sea-
bottom, attached to stones and old shells, and resembling
a bag of tough leathery skin, with two orifices, and hence
called Ascidia, from the Greek word do-Kos, a leather bottle.
Some of these are large, rough with irregular lumps and
depressions, and opaque; others are smaller, smooth,
pellucid, and brilliantly coloured. If they are plunged
into a vessel of sea-water we see the orifices periodically
opened wide, and suddenly contracted to a point; and by
careful observation we may detect the entering and out-
going currents of water that pass through these apertures.
There are some species which, though not strictly com-
pound, are aggregated together in a highly curious manner.
Such are the Salpw, which are found swimming in the free
ocean; sometimes solitary, sometimes united into long
flexible chains of transparent animals, which swim with


FOLYZOA AND TUNICATA.
237
serpentine movements. The genus Pyrosoma contains ani-
mals aggregated in another manner. These are lengthened
Ascidians, united to each other so as to compose a long
free tube, open at one extremity and closed at the other.
This is also an oceanic genus, and is remarkable for being
vividly luminous, the light displaying the most gorgeous
and varied hues. We shall close this chapter with an
extract from Mr Bennet's ''Wanderings," in which he
records his own observations of these interesting animals.
"On the 8th of June, being then in lat. 0° 30' south,
and long. 27° 5' west . . . late at night, the mate of
the watch came and called me to witness a very unusual
appearance in the water, which he, on first seeing it, con-
sidered to be breakers. On arriving upon the deck, this
was found to be a very broad and extensive sheet of phos-
phorescence, extending in a direction from east to west,
as far as the eye could reach. The luminosity was con-
fined to the range of animals in this shoal, for there was
no similar light in any other direction. I immediately
cast the towing-net over the stern of the ship, as we ap-
proached near the luminous streak, to ascertain the cause
of this extraordinary and so limited phenomenon.- The
ship soon cleaved through the brilliant mass, from which,
by the disturbance, strong flashes of light were emitted,
and the shoal, judging from the time the vessel took in
passing through the mass, may have been a mile in
breadth. The passage of the vessel through them in-
creased the light around to a far stronger degree, illumi-
nating the ship. On taking in the towing-net, it was
found half filled with Pyrosoma (Atlanticum f), which shone
with a beautiful pale-greenish light, and there were also


238 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
a few shell-fish in the net at the same time. After the
mass had been passed through, the light was still seen
astern, until it became invisible in the distance, and the
whole of the ocean then became hidden in darkness as be-
fore this took place. The scene was as novel as beautiful
and interesting."


CHAPTER XXVI.
CONCHIFERA AND GASTROPODA {Shell-fish).
Such of our readers as are familiar with the fish-market
at Southampton have, doubtless, often seen a large sort
of shell-fish which are sold under the name of "Old
Maids." The fishwoman, perhaps herself an " old maid,"
will tell you that these humble sisters of hers, these rivals
in celibacy, are dug up from the muddy margin of the
harbour, into which their burrow descends a foot or more
deep; that the hunter for them is aware of their presence
by a jet of water spirted from the mouth of the hole as
soon as they become aware of his, a fact of which his ap-
proaching footsteps inform them; and that he instantly
plunges his narrow spade or fork in an oblique direction,
and raises the unlucky bivalve, with a cloud of mud and
water, into the air.
Now, if we examine one of these "Old Maids," which
naturalists designate as the Sand Gaper (Mya arenaria),
we find that we have an animal closely resembling those
Ascidice that we lately described. It is enclosed in a
leathery wrinkled coat, with the two orifices placed near
the end of a rather long tube; the internal anatomy
differs little from that of the creatures just named, ex-


240
LIFE, IS ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
cept that there is an opening in the side for the protru-
sion of a moveable fleshy organ called the foot; but ex-
ternally there is this peculiarity, that, in the substance of
the coat, there are formed two valves or convex plates of
stony substance (shelf), which are united along one side
by a hinge, and enclose the soft parts, as the leaves of a
book are contained within the covers.
This, then, is a bivalve sheW-fush, as it is commonly
(though incorrectly) named, and it is the representative
of an extensive Class of animals, found all over the world,
in fresh and salt waters, and designated Coxchifera, or
"Shell-bearers." There is, it is true, very great diversity
in the details of form and structure that we find in this
immense assemblage of animals; but all these variations
can be easily traced by insensible gradation to this primal
form, and thence to those lower types which we have
already described. Sometimes the orifices for receiving
and discharging water are prolonged into two distinct
tubes with fringed extremities, as in that lovely and deli-
cate shell that inhabits our sandy beaches, called, from
its diverging rays of pink and yellow, the Setting Sun
(Psammobia vespertina), where the two tubes, when fully
extended, are twice the length of the shell. At other
times we find the tubes again reduced to simple openings,
and one of these forming a mere slit, scarcely to be dis-
tinguished from the common opening of the coat or mantle,
as in the Mussels (Mytilidaz). This separation of the
mantle, again, occurs in various degrees, from its condi-
tion as a mere orifice for the protrusion of the foot, to
that of the Oysters (Ostreada), where it is open all round,
a fleshy counterpart of the shelly valves, bordered by a


SHELL-FISH.
Ml
short but close fringe. In the beautiful Pectens, "the
butterflies of the Mollusca," the mantle is still further
modified, for it is furnished with
four rows of long moveable con-
tractile tentacles, and with two
rows of eyes that sparkle and glow
like the most brilliant gems.
Another and a parallel modifica-
tion takes place in the breathing
organs, which, instead of being a Pecten.
closed sac, as we saw it in the Ascidice, become thin flat
leaves, much like the folds of the mantle or the shell-valves,
which are placed a pair on each side. Their structure is
no less modified than their form, for instead of oval ciliated
cells on the internal surface, each of the four leaves (in the
Pecten, for instance) consists of a vast number of straight,
slender, transparent filaments, evidently tubular, arranged
side by side, so that 1500 of them would be contained
within the length of an inch. Strictly, however, these are
but one filament, excessively long, bent upon itself agaiu
and again, at both the free and the attached end of the
gill-leaf, throughout its whole extent. This repeated fila-
ment is armed on each of two opposite sides with a line
of vibrating cilia, the two lines moving in contrary direc-
tions, exactly as on the tentacles of the Polyzoa, which
are the breathing organs there; by this action a current
of water is made continually to flow up and down each of
these delicate filaments ; so that the blood which circulates
in their interior (for they are, doubtless, blood-vessels) is
continually exposed, throughout this its long and tortuous
course, to the action of oxygen.


242 LIFE, IN ITS IXTEHMEDIATK FORMS.
Like all organic functions, the action of these cilia is
uot under the will of the animal. If, during life, a small
portion of the gills be cut off, the motion of the cilia will
convey the fragment swiftly away, with a smooth easy mo-
tion, through the surrounding fluid, in a definite direction.
It does not eveu cease with the life of the animal. A
specimen which we examined had been dead at least
fifteen hours, yet when we placed the torn fragments of
the branchice, one after another, beneath the microscope,
the energy of the ciliary action, as the wave flowed with
uniform regularity up one side and down the other of
every filament, filled us with astonishment. Even the
next morning, twenty-six hours after death, when the
tissues of the filaments were partially dissolved, the ciliary
motion was still going on, on portions that preserved their
integrity.
The leaves which form the mantle are useful, not only
for protecting these gills and the other delicate organs
which are situated within their embrace, but for manu-
facturing the valves of the shell. This process has been
ably described by Professor Rymer Jones, as it takes place
in the Scallop (Pecten maximus), and we shall quote his
words :—
"It is the circumference or thickened margin of the
mantle alone which provides for the increase of the shell
in superficial extent. On examining this part, it is found
to be of a glandular character, and, moreover, not
unfrequently provided with a delicate and highly sen-
sitive fringe of minute tentacula. Considered more
attentively, it is seen to contain in its substance patches
of different colours, corresponding both in tint and rela-


244 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
contains in its substance coloured spots; these, when
minutely examined, are found to be of a glandular cha-
racter, and to owe their peculiar colours to a pigment
secreted by themselves; the pigment, so furnished, being
therefore mixed up with the calcareous matter at the
time of its deposition, coloured lines are formed upon the
exterior of the shell wherever these glandular organs exist.
If the deposition of the colour from the glands be kept
up without remission during the enlargement of the shell,
the lines upon the surface are continuous and unbroken;
but if the pigment be furnished only at intervals, spots or
coloured patches of regular form, and gradually increasing
in size with the growth of the mantle, recur in a longi-
tudinal series wherever the paint-secreting glands are met
with."*
The shell increases in thickness no less than in dia-
meter; and this also is effected by the mantle; the calca-
reous matter being deposited, layer after layer, on the
interior surface of the valve. There are no pigment-glands
on the general surface of the mantle, and hence the interior
of shells is always white or destitute of colour, except that
brilliant iridescence which we are so familiar with in many
shells, which constitutes mother of pearl. This prismatic
reflection depends on strice, or impressed lines, of micro-
scopic minuteness, on the surface, and can be produced
artificially on several substances. Pearls themselves are
merely quantities of this calcareous matter poured out in
abundance at one spot, often to surround some atom of
sand, and thus prevent its edges from wounding the sen-
sitive mantle.
* General Outline, 385.


SHELL-FISH.
245
If we now come to the other great Class of shelled ani-
mals, that named Gastropoda, we find we have to make
a considerable leap to pass the hiatus. For, in fact, there
is no very close relation between the Bivalves and the Uni-
valves. Possibly species may yet be discovered which will
supply the links that are wanting; but this is scarcely
likely. Not that there is no transition. If we take that
interesting shell called the Cap of Liberty, or the Torbay
Bonnet (Pikopsis Hungaricus), we cannot but be struck
with the resemblance which it bears to a single valve of
such a shell as the Heart (Isocardia cor); and in some of
its near allies, as the little Cup and Saucer (Calyptrea
Sinensis), there is a subordinate shelly plate in the interior,
which has been considered as the vanishing representative
of the second valve.
The form of the shell in this Class is that of a cone,
with the apex on one side of the centre. In the Limpets
{Patella), the cone is short and low, and therefore unmis-
takeable; in the Torbay Bonnet the summit is a little
rolled over, the commencement of that spiral form which
we see in the Whelk and the Snail. Nay, if we take the
extremes of this condition, as we see in the long many-
whorled shells of the genera Turritella, Scalaria, and the
like, it is not difficult to trace the same form, a cone drawn
out to great length and twisted spirally on an axis.
The animals of these shells are much higher in organic
development than the Conchifera. They have a distinct
head, with organs of touch, of vision, of hearing, and of
smell, and a mouth armed with a complex array of teeth
for the purpose of rasping away the solid food on which
they subsist. They have the faculty of locomotion, the


246
LIFE, IK ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
under surface of the body being dilated into a flat mus-
cular foot, the action of which may be observed by any
one who chooses to look at a snail gliding up a pane of
glass. This great muscular crawling disk is so charac-
teristic as to have given name to the Class, Gastropoda,
from two Greek words, signifying "belly-footed."
A cabinet of shells is a beautiful and interesting sight;
the rich, varied, and delicate colours, the pearly iri-
descence, the elaborate patterns, the porcellaneous texture,
the perfect polish, the exquisite sculpture, and the grace-
ful forms which we see profusely displayed there, must

always delight the eye. No won-
der that the conchologist regards
his treasures, the spoils of every
sea and every shore, as "an as-
semblage of gems," and that he
delights to exhibit them as les de-
lices des yeux et de Vesprit. The
prices that have sometimes been
given for rare or beautiful speci-
mens would be considered fabu-
lous, were they not capable of in-
WenUetrap. dubitable proof. "In 1753, at
the sale of Commodore Lisle's shells, at Longford's, four
Wentletraps (Scalaria pretiosa) were sold for seventy-five
pounds twelve shillings, viz.,—one not quite perfect for
sixteen guineas; a very fine and perfect one for eighteen
guineas; another for sixteen guineas; and a fourth for
twenty-three pounds two shillings."
But higher prices than these have been given. That in
Mr Bullock's Museum, supposed to be the largest known,


248 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS.
A curious circumstance in the economy of these crea-
tures is the secretion of a peculiar fluid of a most intense
blackness, lodged in a vessel, variously situated in different
species, and spouted out at the will of the animal. This
substance, frequently called ink, from the use to which it
was anciently applied, mixes freely with the water, dif-
fusing an impenetrable obscurity for some distance around,
by which the animal often escapes from danger; thus, as
our illustrious Ray wittily remarked, hiding itself, like an
obscure or prolix author, under its own ink.
And lest any of our readers should slily add "ecce
signum!" we will say no more about the Mollusca at this
present.


PART III.
LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS.





CHAPTER XXVII.
Pisces (Fishes).
In passing from one country to another, we do not find
any boundary lines in nature corresponding to those which
'we see upon our maps. There may be a gradual change
of features, indeed; as the vegetation that characterises
Spain differs from that of Franco, and this latter from
that of Prussia; but tho traveller is not conscious of any
abrupt change, the last mile of his journey on one side
of either frontier being pretty much the same as the first
mile beyond it. We speak, too, of the various ranks and
classes of society: the labourer, the artisan, the trades-
man, the manufacturer, the merchant, the professional
man, the scientific man, the statesman, the peer, the
prince, the sovereign ; but the homes, the raiment, the
maimers of these, though characterised by well-marked
diversities and peculiarities, are not separated by broad
lines of demarcation, but pass imperceptibly into each
other. The diversities exist in nature, but the boundary
lines are arbitrary.
So it is in Natural History. The student will do well
to bear in mind continually that those subdivisions of
organic beings which we call Classes, Orders, Families,
and Genera, are but convenient aids for recording and re-


LIFE, IX ITS HIGHER FORMS.
membeving facts. There is but one division which exists
in nature,—that of Species. Each Species is separated
from every other Species by an impassable boundary
(whether we can in all cases determine it practically or
not). It was originally created distinct, and distinct it
remains. But the group of Species which we call a Genus
is a merely arbitrary collocation ; convenient, indeed, as we
before said, and to a certain extent natural, inasmuch as it
is a formula for expressing the community of certain cha-
racters; but still arbitrary, inasmuch as it might be made
more or less extensive, according to the pleasure of the
naturalist who chooses the characters on which it is made
to rest. And so of all the higher groups.
The great Division of animal existences which we pro-
pose now to consider presents peculiarities of structure
and function, which we can seize and identify with great
precision when we look at it as a whole. But if we exa-
mine the points of contact between it and the great groups
we have dismissed, we find these broadly-marked distinc-
tions becoming evanescent, and melting into those of the
conterminous phalanx.
One grand distinction of the higher animals is com-
memorated in the title by which they are generally
known,—Verterrata. They possess an internal skeleton
composed of many pieces, and formed of a substance which
is not deposited, layer by layer, like the shells of Mol-
lusca, but is capable of growth in the manner of fleshy
tissues, being permeated both by blood-vessels and nerves,
and undergoing a perpetual change in its component atoms.
In its simplest form this substance is flexible and elastic,
and is called cartilage; but by the addition, in various


254
LIFE, IX ITS HIGHER FORMS.
running longitudinally through the animal. These pieces
are called vertebra. The best way to study a vertebra is to
take that of a Fish,—one of the joints from the backbone
of a Cod for example, since in this Class we find it most
simply and yet most perfectly developed. We thus per-
ceive that it is composed of several parts :—1. The central
cylinder; 2. the superior arch, formed by two sloping side
pieces, between which the spinal marrow passes; 3. the
superior spinous process, projecting upward from the union
of these pieces; 4. the two lateral processes; 5. the infe-
rior arch, formed as the superior is, protecting great blood-
vessels; 6. the inferior spinous process, pointing downward.
A number of the vertebrat at the fore part of the column
are so far modified in shape and proportion of parts as to
be identified only by close study and comparison. They
constitute the skull, a capacious chamber of bone formed
to contain the brain, which is but the aggregation of seve-
ral pairs of ganglia greatly developed.
In front of these bones there is placed another series,
arranged in pairs, constituting the face; some of these are
excavated into cavities to protect the organs of sense, and
others form the jaws, ,fcc.
These may all be considered as integral parts of the
vertebral column; but besides these, there are important
accessories yet to be noticed. First, there are a number
of slender bones, which are articulated to the transverse
processes of the vertebrae, and arch outwards and down-
wards. They form two series: 1. The hyoid arches,
which spring from the skull: these are minute in the
human skeleton; but in some animals, especially in Fishes,
they are large and important, forming the great frame-


FISHBll.
work which carries the gills. 2. The ribs, which are in
general developed in a ratio inverse to that of. the hyold
arches. Secondly, we find two pairs of limbs, each con-
sisting of several pieces articulated to each other, and free
at one extremity, while the other is jointed to the spinal
column, or suspended in the muscles of the body.
Such is a brief enumeration of the essential parts of an
internal skeleton, which, when examined in detail, with'
intelligence of the purpose which every part is intended
to subserve, forms one of the noblest monuments of the
wisdom of God that can be found in creation. It must
be observed, however, that the various portions are seen
in various degrees of development in different classes of
animals, and that some of the constituents are occasionally
either very rudimentary or entirely wanting.
Not less important in the economy of a vertebrate
animal is the condition of the nervous system. To this,
indeed, the skeleton is ancillary. There is a great concen-
tration of nervous matter in the fore part of the animal,
constituting the brain, whence cords are given forth to the
organs of sense, which are mostly situated in the vicinity.
From its hinder part proceeds the spinal marrow, running
along a tube formed by the superior arches of the vertebrae,
and giving off a number of threads on each side in sym-
metrical pairs. The spinal marrow itself is not homoge-
neous, but is composed of four cords fused together, of
which the upper pair is destined to convey the commands
of the will to the voluntary muscles, while the lower pair
receives the sensations which are conveyed from without.
Hence they are respectively termed the motor and the
sensitive tracts of the spinal cord.


FlcSHES.
257
the whole structure of the living temple in its course,
it takes its return journey as we at first described it.
The lowest Class of the great Vertebrate Division is
that of Fishes. They are distinguished by the simplicity
of their outline, by their respiring by gills instead of
lungs, by the enormous development of their hyold appa-
ratus, by their cold blood, by the modification of their
limbs into fins, and by the possession of accessory organs
of the same kind, especially the tail-fin, which is their
grand instrument of locomotion. All these characteristics
are, more or less obviously, dependent on the great fact
of their aquatic life.
We have already adverted to the existence among the
Mollusoa of the rudiments of an internal skeleton, by
whicli that great division overlaps, so to speak, the pre-
sent. On the other hand, we find in most Fishes rem-
nants of the external skeleton neither few nor unimpor-
tant, by which they manifest their affinity with the crea-
tures below them. The scales of the majority of Fishes,
the bony plates which we see in the Trunk-fish (Ostracion)
and in the "Tittlebat," which every truant schoolboy
knows, the recurved spinous tubercles with which the
Thornback's skin is studded, and the opercular bones or
plates that cover the gills,—what are all these but portions
of an external skeleton, in no way belonging to that series
of bones which belongs to the fish as a vertebrate animal t
The rays of the fins which are not limbs (as the dorsal,
the anal, and the caudal), and the blade-like bones pene-
trating the flesh to which these are jointed, must also come
into the same category.
The scales which form the covering of most fishes are-


258
LIFE, IX ITS HIGHER FORMt.
highly instructive objects. "Examined separately," says
Professor Jones, " each scale is found to be partially im-
bedded in a minute fold of the living and vascular cutis,
to which its under surface is adherent. Every scale is, in
fact, made up of superimposed laminae of horny matter
secreted by the cutis, precisely in the same way as the
shelly covering of a mollusc; and by maceration the dif-
ferent layers may readily be separated, the smallest and
most superficial being, of course, the first formed, while the
largest and most recent are those nearest to the surface
of the living skin: as far as relates to the mode of growth,
therefore, there is the strictest analogy between the scale
of a fish and a shell. Various are the forms under which
these scales present themselves to the ichthyologist;
sometimes, as in the Eel, they are thinly scattered over
the surface of a thick and slimy cutis;* more generally
they form a close and compact imbricated mail; in the
Pipe-fishes (Syngnathida) the whole body is covered with
a strong armour composed of broad and thick calcareous
plates; and in the Coffin-fishes (Ostracionidce) the integu-
ment is converted into a strong box made up of polygonal
pieces anchylosed together, so that the tail and the fins
alone remain moveable." t
The bones which compose the proper skeleton have little
density or hardness in any fishes; and in one large sub-
division—that containing the Sturgeons, Sharks, and
Skates—they are wholly composed of cartilage. In the
latter, which, in this as well as some other respects, are
the lowest forms in the Class, we find, however, analogies
and peculiarities which raise them above the highest.
* Or, rather, imbedded in ita substance. t "Gen. Outline," p. Wfl.


FISHES.
259
Teeth, which are so characteristic of Verterrata, are
nowhere found in such variety of form and function as
among Fishes. They are not confined to the jaws, but
are found by turns in almost every ono of the bones that
compose the mouth, thom*h not in all species. They are
generally simple spines, curved backwards; but innume-
rable modifications of this form occur. Thus the jaws of
the deadly Shark are flat and lancet-like, the cutting
edges being notched like a saw; the front teeth of the
Plaice and the Flounder are compressed plates; some, as
the Wrasse, have flat grinding teeth; others, as the
Sheep's-head, have the grinding surface convex; and
others, as the genus Chrysophrys, have convex teeth so
numerous and so closely packed over a broad surface, as
to resemble the paving-stones of a street. The beautiful
Chaetodons of warm climates, on the other hand, have
teeth which resemble bristles, and these are set close to-
gether like the hairs of a brush; while the Perch of our
own rivers has them still more slender, minute, and nume-
rous, so as to resemble the pile of velvet. Another of
our well-known fishes, the bold and fierce Pike, is armed
with teeth scarcely less formidable in size, form, and sharp-
ness, than the canines of a carnivorous quadruped. In
number, also, there is a great variety. The Pike, the
Perch, the Cat-fish, and many others, have the mouth
crowded with innumerable teeth, while the Carp and the
Roach have only a few strong teeth in the throat, and
a single flat one above; and the Sturgeon, the Pipe-fish,
and the Sandlaunce, are entirely toothless.
The eye in this Class presents a beautiful example of
adaptation to the medinm in which they live. From the


in the Axolotes and the Newts, in which this organ is a
simple bladder, and in the Frogs and Toads, in which it
is subdivided into large cells; and it may, therefore, be
considered as the first rudimentary appearance of an aerial
respiratory apparatus.
With regard to its function, in Fishes, it appears prima-
rily to be connected with swimming. Being condensed
by muscular pressure, or allowed to expand, it renders the
body either heavier or lighter; and thus enables the fish
to swim at any height in the water according to its plea-
sure. In general, the roving and surface-swimming species
are furnished with the organ in question, while such as
haunt the bottom are destitute of it; and this arrange-
ment well agrees with the function we have ascribed to
it. Yet it cannot be denied that there are some most
unaccountable deviations from this rule. Thus, the Gur-
nards, which are ground-fishes, are well furnished with
bladders; the two British species of Surmullet are deprived
of the organ; while the Tropical species, which have the
same habits, are provided with one. Again, of surface-
fishes, our common Mackerel has no bladder, while the
Spanish and Coly Mackerels, which have exactly the same
manners, are each furnished with one.
In many cases the bladder is hermetically sealed, but,
in some instances, it communicates by a tube with the
stomach, or the gullet. The air which it contains appears
to be a secreted gas; it is found to be, in some cases,
oxygen, and in others, strange to say, nearly pure nitrogen.
The former gas occurs chiefly in species that live in very
deep water.
The blood, as already observed, is cold; that is, it com-


LIFE, IK ITS HIGHER FORMS.
monly takes the temperature of the surrounding water;
in some of the swift oceanic Fishes of the Mackerel family,
however, such as the Tunny and the Bonito, the blood is
found to be 10° higher than the temperature of the sur-
face of the sea, even within the Tropics: tho flesh of these
Fishes is dark and dense. The blood-disks are sometimes
circular, sometimes oval. They are larger than those of
Mammalia and Birds; smaller than those of Reptiles,
and especially than those of Amphibia.
The irritability of the muscular fibre is considerable,
and is long retained. Fishmongers take advantage of this
property, to produce rigid muscular contraction, after life
has ceased, by transverse cuts and immersion of the
muscles in cold water: by this operation, which is called
"crimping," the firmness and density of the muscular
tissue are increased.
In our next chapter, we shall enter into some details of
the instincts and habits of Fishes, and some other matters
connected with the Class, of more popular interest than
these structural peculiarities, which, we fear, will prove
but a dry morsel to many of our readers.


CHArTEK XXVIIL
Pisces (Fishes').
Continued.
As the innate selfishness of our hearts always prompts
the question, mi bono t—it may be as well to commence
this chapter with a few particulars of the usefulness of
Fishes in ministering to our bodily wants. The value of
fish as an article of human food has been appreciated in
all nations and all ages. The earliest pictorial records of
Egyptian every-day life are largely occupied with the cap-
ture and preservation of these animals; various forms of
nets, the fish-spear, the hook and line, are all in requisi-
tion; and strings of fishes, split and salted, and hung out
to dry, remind us of scenes familiar enough to the writer
of these pages—the cod-fisheries of Newfoundland. Al-
lusions to the hook and line occur in the most ancient of
writings—the Book of Job; and, in the Mosaic law,
"whatsoever hath fins and scales in the seas and in the
rivers" was freely given to Israel for food. The most
remote and savage tribes feed largely on a fish diet; aud
the ingenious devices and implements employed by the
islanders of the Pacific Archipelago far exceed in variety,


264
LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS.
and in their elaborate effectiveness, those produced by
European art. Every sea, from the Pole to the Equator,
is stocked with fishes; they abound in the rivers and
lakes of all climates; even the "tarns" and little basins
scooped out of the summits of mountain-ranges, hold
species of interest and value peculiar to themselves. So
that the beneficent Providence of God has thus stored up
inexhaustible magazines of wholesome, palatable, and nu-
tritious food, and placed them within reach of man for the
supply of his necessity—the stimulus and the reward of
industry.
The fisheries of Britain are of national importance; the
amount they contribute to the public wealth is immense;
and they are regulated, even in many minute details, by
repeated enactments of solemn legislation. An enumera-
tion of the species which form the objects of our fisheries
is itself startling:—the surmullet, gurnards of half-a-dozen
kinds, sea-bream, mackerel, scad, dory, atherine, gray
mullet of two kinds, gar-fish, salmon, herring, pilchard,
shad, cod, haddock, pout, whiting of two kinds, pollack,
bake, ling, burbot, torsk, turbot, holibut, sole, flounder,
plaice, dab, eols of three species, conger, thornback, skate
of several kinds,—are all taken in quantities and brought
regularly to market; not to speak of many other kinds,
such as perch, trout, char, pike, carp, roach, tench, &c,
which are taken for the table, chiefly from our rivers, for
individual amusement.
The quantity of human food thus taken yearly from the
water is enormous; an idea of it may be formed from the
fact, that, of one species alone, and that a very local one,
being confined to the western extremity of our island—


FISHES.
265
the pilchard—the Cornwall fisheries yield 21,000 hogs-
heads annually. What, then, must be the produce of all
the species above enumerated, all round the indented
coasts of Britain and Ireland? We have no sufficient
data to determine the commercial value of British fishe-
ries; but it has been loosely estimated by Mr M'Culloch
at £3,500,000, and by Sir John Barrow at £8,300,000,
per annum.
The possibility of capturing fishes of any particular
species at any given time, with tolerable certainty, in such
numbers as to constitute a fishery, is dependeut on certain
instincts and habits in such species, leading them to asso-
ciate in multitudes in particular localities at particular
seasons. The most prominent of these instincts is con-
nected with reproduction. It is essential to the hatching
of the spawn (or eggs) of most fishes, that it bo deposited
in comparatively shallow water, within reach of the vivi-
fying influences of light and heat. Hence, as the season
of spawning draws nigh, the various kinds leave the deep
water, and approach, in countless hosts, the shores, where
they are readily seen and captured. And it is a most
beneficent ordination of God's providence, that, at this
season, they are in the very best condition for food: let
the spawn be once deposited, and the fish is worthless.
What is more vile than " a shotten herring?"
Any one who will look with curiosity at the "hard roe"
of a Yarmouth Bloater, may form a notion of the extent
to which fishes obey that primal law, " Be fruitful, and
multiply, and fill the waters in the seas" (Gen. i. 22); for
this hard roe is nothing else than the accumulation of
eggs in the ovary of a female fish: every seed-like grain


266
LIFE, IN ITS HIGI1ER FORMS.
an egg, and all to be laid in the course of a few days—
the contribution of one individual herring to the popula-
tion of the seas! It would be no sinecure to count them;
but, partly by counting, partly by weighing, approxima-
tions have been made to a knowledge of the extent of a
fish's family. Six millions of eggs have been estimated
to lie in the roe of a single cod!
Now, of course, an immense proportion of this number
comes to nothing; perhaps three-fourths of these eggs are
devoured by other fishes, or voracious creatures of one
kind or other, almost before they well reach the bottom;
and of the proportion that is hatched, multitudes find a
speedy termination of existence in the maw of their watch-
ful and numerous enemies. For, as a general rule, fishes
are universally carnivorous; every species preying with-
out mercy upon all others that it can master and swallow.
Some curious examples of this voracity are on record.
Mr Jesse speaks of a Pike, to which he threw in succes-
sion five Roach, each about four inches in length. "He
swallowed four of them, and kept the fifth in his mouth
for about a quarter of an hour, when it also disappeared."
At a lecture delivered before the Zoological Society of
Dublin, Dr Houston exhibited as "a fair sample of a fish's
breakfast," a Frog-fish, two feet and a half long: in the
stomach of which was a Cod-fish, two feet in length; the
Cod's stomach contained the bodies of two Whitings of
ordinary size; and the Whitings in their turn held the
half-digested remains of many smaller fishes, too much
broken up to be identified.
M Harsh seems the ordinance, that life, by life
Should be sustained; and yet, when all must die,


FISHES.
267
And be like water spilt upon the ground,
Which none can gather up, the spucdiest fate,
Though violent and terrible, is best.
Oh, with what horrors would creation groan.
What agonies would over be before us—
Famine and pestilence, disease, despair,
Anguish and pain, in every hideous shape-
Had all to wait the slow decay of nature!
Life were a martyrdom of sympathy;
Death lingering, raging, writhing, shrieking torture:
The grave would be abolished; this gay world
A valley of dry bones—a Golgotha—
In which the living stumbled o'er the dead
Till they could fall no more, and blind perdition
Swept frail mortality away fur ever.
Twas wisdom, mercy, goodness, that ordain'd
Life in such infinite profusion—Death
So sure, so prompt, so multiform, to those
That never sinn'd, that know not guilt, that fear
No wrath to come, and have no heaven to lose."
Montgomery.
The statement has been common, in books of natural
history, that fishes manifest no parental affection or care;
that the spawn, having been deposited in the proper situa-
tion, the parents' work is done, and all their solicitude
ceases. It is possible that this may be the general rule;
but it is not without numerous exceptions. As early as
the time of Fabricins, it was known that the male Lump-
sucker kept a strict watch over the spawn when laid, de-
fending it with the most obstinate courage. And recent
observations have added not a few other examples of pa-
rental care among fishes, not exceeded by the devotion of
the mother bird. Within a few months of the writing of
these pages, a most interesting detail has been published
by Mr Warington, of the nest-building instincts and
tender care of the commonest of British fishes—the tiny
Stickleback, that swarms in every pool.


268
LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS.
In the month of May the male Stickleback, which is
then adorned with the most brilliant tints—his nuptial
dress—begins to make a nest. For this purpose he selects
small woody fibres, rootlets, &c, which he collects one by
one; and, carrying them to the selected place, inserts
them into the ground, and skilfully interweaves them, so
as to form a ring. Now and then he collects minute bits
of gravel, and brings mouthfuls of sand, all of which he
lays upon the fibres to keep them steady. Thus a thick
ring of interlaced materials is at length made, with a hole
in each of the two opposite sides, through which the fish
can squeeze himself. During the whole time the little
creature resents the least intrusion on his operations, at-
tacking his fellow fishes with the utmost fury, and driving
them to a distance. The house being ready, the lady is
invited to take possession; and the following curious
scene ensues:—
"The female fish came out of her hiding-place, her
attention being fixed apparently on the nest; when imme-
diately the male became, as it were, mad with delight.
He darted round her in every direction, then to his accu-
mulated materials, slightly adjusted them, fanned them,
and then back again in an instant. This was repeated
several times. As she did not advance to the nest, he
endeavoured to push her in that direction with his snout:
this not succeeding, he took her by the tail and by the
side-spine, and tried to pull her to the spot, then back to
the nest; and having examined the two small openings
alluded to, he thrust his nose in at the lower, and gradu-
ally drew himself under the whole of the materials, making


FISHKi.
269
his exit at the opposite one, as though to prove to her
that everything was prepared for spawning."*
The female now deposits her spawn in the nest; and is
immediately repulsed by the male as earnestly as she had
been invited. The nest is then opened by the male to the
action of the water, which, by a peculiar motion of his
body, called in the previous extract " fanning," constantly
repeated, is driven in currents over the spawn. This pro-
ceeds for about ten days; at the end of which period the
male sets himself to destroy and scatter the materials of
the nest, so as to leave a space of clean gravel about
three inches in diameter. Let Mr Warington tell us what
next:—
"Watching carefully, for a short time, to understand
what all this busy alteration indicated, I at last had the
pleasure of observing, by the aid of a long-focused pocket
lens, some of the young fry—of course most minute crea-
tures—fluttering upwards here and there, by a movement
half swimming, half leaping, and then falling rapidly again
upon or between the clean pebbles of the shingle-bottom.
This arose from their having the remainder of the yelk
still attached to their body, which, acting as a weight,
caused them to sink the moment the swimming effort had
ceased.
"Around all the space above mentioned, and across it
in every direction, the male fish, as the guardian, conti-
nually moved. And now his labours became still more
arduous than they had been before, and his vigilance was
taxed to the utmost extreme; for the other fishes, three
of them twenty times larger than himself, as soon as they
* "Annals of Nat. Hist." Oct. 1852.


270
LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS.
perceived that the young fry were in motion, used their
utmost endeavours continuously to pounce upon the nest
and snap them up. The courage of this little creature
was certainly now put to its severest test; but, nothing
daunted, he drove them all off, seizing their fins, and
striking with all his strength at their heads and at their
eyes most furiously. All the assistance that could pos-
sibly be afforded him was of course rendered, short of
actual interference, by keeping them pretty well fed, in
order to allay, if possible, their voracity. Another cir-
cumstance, which appeared to add greatly to the excite-
ment that he was constantly subjected to, arose from a
second female fish, being in spawn, endeavouring most
pertinaciously to deposit her ova in the same locality, and
hence rushing frequently down towards the spot. But
the male fish was ever on the alert; and although he did
not strike at her in the furious way he attacked the larger
ones, yet he kept continually under her, with the formid-
able back-spines all raised erect, so that it was impossible
for her to effect her apparent object.
"The care of the young brood, while encumbered with
the yelk, was very extraordinary; and as this was gradu-
ally absorbed, and they gained strength, their attempts to
swim carried them to a greater distance from the parent
fish; his vigilance, however, seemed everywhere; and if
they rose by the action of their fins above a certain height
from the shingle bottom, or flitted beyond a certain dis-
tance from the nest, they were immediately seized in his
mouth, brought back, and gently puffed or jetted into
their place again. This was constantly occurring; the
other fishes being continually on the watch to devour the


FISHES.
271
stragglers, and make a savoury morsel of these Lilliputian
truants. Indeed, the greater number of the whole brood
must have fallen a prey to their voracity, as it was only
some three or four that reached a size to place them be-
yond the power of their destroyers "*
Some of our fishes perforin long migrations in order to
deposit their spawn. The Salmon, for instance, ascends
rocky rivers from the sea, overcoming various barriers,
and leaping up cascades, to accomplish its purpose, with
indomitable perseverance and energy. The Eel, on the
other hand, descends rivers to spawn in the brackish
waters of estuaries, displaying equal determination. Of
this a curious example is said to occur annually in the
vicinity of Bristol.
Near that city there is a large pond, immediately ad-
joining which is a stream. On the bank between these
two waters a large tree grows, the branches of which hang
into the pond. By means of these branches the young
Eels ascend into the tree, and from thence let themselves
drop into the stream below, thus migrating to far distant
waters, where they increase in size, and become useful and
beneficial to man. A casual witness of this circumstance
remarked that the tree appeared to be quite alive with
these little animals. The rapid and unsteady motion of
the boughs did not appear to impede their progress.
Did space permit, we could furnish many entertaining
details of manners in this Class of animals, in their various
modes of taking prey; but we must content ourselves
with one. An interesting example of what we may be
allowed to call skill, is afforded by the instincts of some
« " Annals of Nat. Hist." Nov. 1855.


FISHES.
273
water, which never fails striking the fly into the sea, when
it soon becomes its prey.
"The relation of this uncommon action of this cunning
fish raised the Governor's curiosity; though it came well
attested, yet he was determined, if possible, to be con-
vinced, of the truth by ocular demonstration. For that
purpose he ordered a large wide tub to be filled with sea-
water; then had some of these fish caught and put into
it, which was changed every other day. In a while they
seemed reconciled to their confinement; then he deter-
mined to try the experiment.
"A slender stick, with a fly pinned on at its end, was
placed in such a direction on the side of the vessel as the
fish could strike it. It was with inexpressible delight
that he daily saw these fish exercising their skill in shoot-
ing at the fly with an amazing velocity, and never missed
their mark."*
* "Phil. Trans." for 1764, vol. liv., p. 89.


CHAPTER XXIX.
Amphibia {Frogs and Toads).
"To any person," observes the eloquent historian of
British Reptiles, "capable of appreciating the interest at-
tached to the study of physiological phenomena, the con-
templation of an animal which at one period of its life is
endowed exclusively with the organs of aquatic respira-
tion, resembling the gills of fishes, with means of locomo-
tion adapted only to a constant residence in the water,
and with a digestive apparatus fitted exclusively for the
assimilation of vegetable food, assuming by degrees the
function of atmospheric respiration, acquiring limbs which
are formed for leaping on land with great strength and
agility, and manifesting the most voracious carnivorous
appetite, will not only excite feelings of the deepest admi-
ration, but necessarily lead to the investigation of the
laws by which such extraordinary changes are governed,
and of the relations which they bear to the theory of
continuous affinity, and to that of progressive develop-
ment through the whole of the animal kingdom."*
Such phenomena are exhibited by the Toads, Frogs,
and Newts, the familiar representatives of that limited
* Bell'a "Brit. Eept.," p. 72.


FUOGS ASD TOADS.
275
Class of animals whose scientific appellation we have in-
scribed at the head of this chapter. They thus afford a
beautiful link in that tissue of " chain-mail" which consti-
tutes the Plan of Nature; for they evidently hold an in-
termediate position between the Fishes, whose respiration
is exclusively aquatic, and the true Reptiles, in which
this vital function is exclusively aerial.
Let us look a little more closely at this curious point,—
the metamorphosis which the Amphibia undergo, and the
accompanying change in the character of their breathing
organs. In the month of April, in almost every ditch
and pool in the country, we see large masses of clear jelly,
with black dots distributed at even distances throughout,
or long strings of the same substance, in which the black
dots are arranged in a double row. The former is the
spawn of the Frog, the latter that of the Toad; and each
dot is the maturing embryo of a single egg, which latter
is a clear globe of about one-fifth of an inch in diameter.
When the spawn is laid, the embryo is an opaque globule,
darker at one side than at the other. In a few days,
however, this begins to take the form of an animal—the
head, the body, and the tail being distinct, as the little
creature lies on its side within the egg, coiled up in a
semicircle. Soon a kind of wart buds from each side of
the neck—the future gills; and currents of water are seen
to stream to and from these important, but as yet minute,
organs.
As time passes, the gills divide into branches, the nos-
trils and the eyes appear, and traces of the mouth may be
discerned. Meanwhile, the power of voluntary movement,
at first confined to the head and tail, increases; and the


27 G
LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS.
little prisoner, as if impatient of confinement, tries to
straighten itself by spasmodic efforts, and at length suc-
ceeds in rupturing the skin of the egg and becomes free.
It is now a Tadpole—a fish-like creature, without
limbs, with an enormous head, and a body thinned off to

Transformations of Frog.
a long tail, which is furnished with a broad finny expan-
sion above and below. The gills now attain their greatest
size, and consist on each side of a pair of much-branched
tufts, which, under the microscope, present a most inter-


FROGS AND TOADS.
279
"The period when the deposit of the eggs commences,
depends upon the season; but the time when the greater
number are produced, is during the months of May and
June; and it is worthy of notice, that the different
species of Newt are found depositing their eggs during a
much longer period of the summer than the tailless Am-
phibia, such as the Frog and Toad. At the time I have
mentioned, if the leaves of the various species of aquatic
plants be observed, many of them will be found folded to-
gether; and within the fold a single egg of the Newt
will be discovered. It is, however, necessary for accurate
observation from the commencement, that the female
Newt be taken and placed in a vessel of water with the
plants in question, that she may deposit the egg under
the eye of the observer. The best plant for the purpose
is the Polygonum persicaria, which is ordinarily chosen by
the animal in its natural habitat. A large glass globe is
a good vessel for the purpose of observation; but if it be
wished to employ a larger one, I may be allowed to re-
commend the largest-sized foot-bath made of white ware.
This vessel I have often used for keeping many aquatic
animals; and if a layer of Roman cement be placed at the
bottom, and a few pebbles, or a stone of sufficient size, be
fixed by the cement at one end, the objection to the slip-
periness of the vessel will be obviated, and the animal will
also have the opportunity of coming above the surface at
pleasure.
"The manner in which the eggs are deposited, is very
interesting and curious. The female, selecting some leaf
of an aquatic plant, sits, as it were, upon its edge, and,
folding it by means of her two hinder feet, deposits a


280
LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS.
single egg in the duplicating of the folded part of the
leaf, which is thereby glued most securely together,
and the egg is thus effectually protected from injury.
The manner in which this is effected is highly interesting,
and may be readily observed by any one. As soon as
the female has in this way deposited a single egg, she
quits the leaf; and after the lapse of a short time seeks
another, there to place another egg." *
Passing from these familiar creatures, we find in foreign
countries a few forms, which, though repulsive in aspect
and manners to the common observer, are of high interest
to the physiologist, because they manifest a still closer
affinity with the class we last considered. The Hellbender
(Menobranchus) of the United States, the Axolote (Axolotus)
of Mexico, and the Pvoleus of Austria, are large Newts,
which never losctheir gills through life, but permanently
perform an aquatic respiration simultaneously with an
aerial one. Iu all these animals, the limbs are reduced
to a rudimentary condition; and in the Siren of Carolina,
which also has a permanent double respiration, the hind
limbs are totally wanting. Finally, the Amphiuma of the
same region, which has an orifice in the neck, but has no
external gills at any period of life, has the appearance of
an Eel, with four minute rudimentary feet; and the bones
of the spine present on each surface that concavity which
belongs to the vertebra of Fishes.
Of these creatures cne of the most interesting is the
Proteus (P. anguinus), which inhabits the waters of great
subterranean cavaties in the limestone formation of
Southern Europe. One of the most romantic and splendid
* Op. cit, pp. 123, 122.


FKOGS AND TOADS.
283
*
faculty of sight would be thrown away upon the Proteus.
Accordingly it is found that though it possesses the
rudiments of eyes, they are reduced to specks of excessive
minuteness, and are, besides, covered by the common
skin of the head. And this leads us to mention the
curious fact that there exists a subterranean fauna, existing
chiefly in mines and eaves, every individual of which is
totally blind by nature. Numerous species have been
lately brought under the notice of naturalists, especially
from the great caverns of North America, none of"
which can be identified with any known supraterranean
species, and every one of which is sightless.
We have hitherto spoken only of that measure of re-
spiration which is effected either by means of gills, or of
lungs, or of both together. But experiments have shewn
that the adult Amphibian needs yet a further supply of
oxygen, which it obtains through the whole surface of the
skin. A Frog has been kept alive for forty days after
having been subjected to the total privation of its lungs.
In order, however, that the skin should be fit for the
performance of this function, it is absolutely essential that
it be maintained in a moist state: dryness of the skin is
speedily fatal. A beautiful provision is made for the
supply of the requisite superficial moisture, by a secretion
from the skin itself. "The extent of the skin is, however,"
observes Professor Bell, "so great that the whole internal
moisture of the animal would speedily be exhausted,
unless a reservoir were provided for an extraordinary
demand; and I now proceed to shew what this reservoir
is, and by what means it is replenished. Every one
knows that when a Frog is hastily seized, or even quickly





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1


CHAPTER XXX.
Reptilia (Reptiles).
Like the Fishes and the Amphibians, the animals of which
we have now to speak are cold-blooded: that is, their
power of producing heat in the process of breathing is so
small, that their temperature scarcely rises above that of
the medium, whether air or water, in which they reside.
Like Fishes, they are mailed; their bodies are protected
by a hard and dry skin, which takes the form of over-
lapping scales, or compact broad plates or shields, or, as
in some of the Lizards, a combination of these two. They
increase by eggs, which are laid singly, and are always
enveloped in a calcareous covering, which, according to the
greater or less ratio of the earthly element, is a parchment-
like skin, or a hard and brittle shell. In the latter case,
the eggs have a close resemblance to those of Birds. In
several respects there is an advance in organisation over
the Amphibians; the heart is composed of two auricles
and one ventricle; the respiration is performed by means
of lungs exclusively; and there is no metamorphosis in
the Class, the animals presenting the perfect form even
from the egg.
There is more diversity in form and structure among
the animals that compose this Class than among those of


2hG
LIFE, IS ITS HIGHER FORMS.
any other of the great Vertebrate Division. Look at the
ponderous Tortoise enclosed in an unyielding box, with an
orifice in front and behind just large enough to allow him
to poke out his head and limbs. Look at the grim
Crocodile lurking in the river reeds, with his enormous
jaws bristling with conical teeth, his body covered with
bony shields, aud his lashing serrated tail. Look at the
Chameleon running on the leafy twig, with his shagreen
coat, his groat, inflated head, hia long tongue shot out ta
capture a distant fly, and his slender tail-tip coiled round
the branch to hold fast. And finally, look at the tor-
tuous Snake as he lies basking on the sunny bank, in
gleaming scales, darting out his forked tongue in play:
see how ho lies in twisted coils; and now mark how, foot-
less and limbless as he is, he glides away on alarm, leaving
only an undulating trail in the dust where he passed!
Surely all these various creatures are not formed on the
same model! Surely there can be no community of struc-
ture here which can bind together into one group forms so
remotely diverse! Yes, diverse as they are, they possess
characters in common, which more than outweigh their
differences, and the whole are united into a chain of many
links, which, by a beautiful gradation, conduct us from
one to the other.
Many of these animals are more or less noxious; and
some of them are terribly fatal to other creatures, and to
man himself; hence, a certain amount of popular prejudice
against tho whole Class exists, and the innocent, which
far out-number the noxious, share the reputation, and are
visited with the hatred and aversion due to their^pjalific
fellows. Yet there are points in their history, which make


REPTILES.
289
work by a peculiar mode of articulation in the bones of the
head. All the bones of the skull are very loosely put toge-
ther, but the jaws are remarkably expansible. In the first
place, the lower jaws are much longer than the skull, com-
mencing behind its base; secondty, they are not hinged to
the upper jaw, but are suspended at the end of a pair of
long slender bones, which are attached to the hind part of
the skull by muscles and tendons so as to be very moveable;
thirdly, the two branches of the lower jaw, which in higher
animals are soldered, as it were, together, are in the Ser-
pents simply bound by ligaments. The result of the whole
arrangement is, that the mouth is capable of a most enor-
mous expansion.
Most of our readers are familiar with descriptions of the
mode in which the great tropical Snakes—the Boas of the
West, or the Pythons of the East—take and gorge their
prey. A Serpent, whose body at its largest part does not
exceed the thickness of a footman's leg, and whose head is
not wider than a lady's hand, will readily swallow a goat.
We say "readily," because the process is regular and ordi-
nary, but it is slow and tedious, and painful to read of, and
much more to witness. We will not repeat the details
here, but merely allude to a contrivance by which the
function of breathing is allowed to proceed during the pro-
tracted interval of swallowing, when the whole throat of
the Serpent is distended almost to bursting by the descend-
ing prey, and the whole head and jaws appear irremediably
dislocated. These animals are furnished with peculiar
muscles for bringing forward the larynx, or entrance to the
windpipe, during the action of swallowing, as has been
demonstrated by Mr Joseph H. Green; and Mr Broderip


REPTILES.
291
of the face begins, and as the backward inclination of the
teeth allows the food only to move in one direction, it is
gradually drawn, by a constantly shifting of the hold on
either side, into the throat.
There is a South African Snake (Deimdon), the mouth
of which is deprived of teeth, yet it is destined to feed on
the eggs of birds. The apparent defect in this case has
been pointed out by Professor Owen as a beautiful example
of special contrivance. "If," observes that great physiolo-
gist, "the teeth had existed of the ordinary form and pro-
portion in the maxillary and palatal regions, the egg would
have been broken as soon as it was seized, and much of its
nutritious contents would have escaped from the lipless
mouth of the Snake in the act of deglutition; but owing
to the almost edentulous state of the jaws, the egg glides
along the expanded opening unbroken, aud it is not until
it has reached the gullet, and the closed mouth prevents
any escape of the nutritious matter, that the shell is ex-
posed to instruments adapted for its perforation. These
instruments consist of the inferior spinous processes of the
seven or eight posterior cervical vertebrae, the extremities
of which are capped by a layer of hard cement, and pene-
trate the dorsal (upper) parietes of the oesophagus; they
may be readily seen even in very young subjects, and in
the interior of that tube, in which their points are directed
backwards. The shell being sawed open longitudinally by
these vertebral teeth, the egg is crushed by the contractions
of the gulltt, and is carried to the stomach, where the shell
is no doubt soon dissolved by the gastric juice."*
It might be expected that the ferocity of animals so
* "Odontography."


292
LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS.
exclusively carnivorous, so energetic, and so well furnished
for rapine as Serpents, would sometimes direct their arms
against each other. Perhaps our readers may not be dis-
pleased to see the report of a conflict of this sort, in which
the prowess of the combatants, their equality of force, their
perseverance, and their fury, are graphically described by
a gentleman who declares himself to have been an eye-
witness of the scene. Of course the story depends on the
veracity of the writer; but we may be permitted to observe
that some details of the description, which a naturalist can
appreciate, and which could scarcely have been invented,
seem to indicate that the picture was drawn from the life.
The story is narrated by Mr St John in his "Letters
of an American Farmer." After describing the size and
strength of some hemp-plants, around which a wild vine
had formed natural arbours, he thus proceeds :—" As I
was one day sitting, solitary and pensive, in this primitive
arbour, my attention was engaged by a strange sort of
rustling noise at some paces distant. I looked all around
without distinguishing anything, until I climbed up one of
my great hemp-stalks; when, to my astonishment, I beheld
two Snakes of a considerable length, the one pursuing the
other with great celerity through a hemp-stubble field.
The aggressor was of the Black kind, six feet long; the
fugitive was a Water Snake, nearly of equal dimensions.
They soon met, and, in the fury of their first encounter,
appeared in an instant firmly twisted together; and whilst
their united tails beat the ground, they mutually tried,
with open jaws, to lacerate each other. What a fell aspect
did they present! Their heads were compressed to a very
Bmall size; their eyes flashed fire; but, after this conflict


296 LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS.
five places; and we at once perceive the propriety of one
of its Latin appellations, that of "fragilis."
Science and ignorance agree, then, that the Slow-worm is
a Snake; but science and ignorance are both mistaken, for
the creature is a Lizard. The assertion seems paradoxical,
when we think of the two pairs of well-developed limbs,
each armed with five jointed and clawed toes, that the
Lizard possesses, and of the way in which it uses them to
scamper away from our intrusion beneath the heath aud
furze; but it is true that the slender, limbless, snake-like
Slow-worm is, in all the most important points of its ana-
tomy, a Saurian, and not a Serpent. Undoubtedly it ia
one of the links by which these two very diverse forms are
bound together, aud, like all such links, forms a most in-
teresting subject of study. The degeneration and gradual
disappearance of the limbs, in the progress of the various
genera that, like so many stepping-stones, bridge over the
wide passage from the Lizard to the Serpent, are pheno-
mena peculiarly worthy of observation; and we cannot do
better, in bringing them before our readers, than to quote
the words of the eloquent historian of " British Reptiles,"
in his account of this very Slow-worm :—
"From the well-known family of the Scinks, or Scmcidce,
with their true legs and five-toed feet, down to the present
species and its immediate congeners, every possible grada-
tion is to be found in the development of the anterior and
posterior extremities. Agreeing, as they all do, in the
Saurian character of the structure of the head, the conso-
lidation of the bones of the craninm and jaws, and the
narrow and confined gape, so different from these parts in
the true Serpent, they yet approach the latter in the com-


REPTILES.
297
parative length of the bodies, and in the gradual diminu-
tion and ultimate disappearance of the extremities. In
the genus Scincus, for instance, the limbs are already less
robust than those of the true Saurians; the two pairs are
also more distant from each other, in consequence of the
greater comparative elongation of the body. There are as
yet five perfect toes on each foot, which, however, are
shorter and more eveu in their relative proportions than
in the true Saurians. These deviations become increased
in the genus Chalcides, and still more in Seps, which has a
very elongated body, the limbs extremely small, and the
toes only four or three on each foot. In Monodactylus a
further reduction takes place in the development of the
limbs, which have dwindled to a mere little undivided
finger; they are still, however, four in number; but in the
genus Bipes the anterior ones have wholly disappeared, and
are found in a rudimentary state under the integument,
the posterior ones constituting only small undivided pro-
cesses. These also being removed, the Ophidian form of
the present genus, and those of Tortrix, Typhlops,&aA others,
with all the Amphisbcenadce, succeed, in which the bones of
the shoulder, the sternum, and the pelvis, exist in a more
or less rudimentary condition, and lead us toward the true
Snakes, in which all these parts are lost, excepting the
rudiment of a posterior extremity, which in the Boa appears
externally in the form of a small horny hook, or holder,
on each side of the vent." *
Besides the Slow-worm, we have in the British Isles but
two representatives of the vast Lizard group—the Order
Sauna. One of these is the elegant Sand Lizard of our
* "British Reptiles," b. 40


298
LIFB, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS.
sandy heaths (Lacerta agilis), which is beautifully marked
along the sides with eye-like spots, and sometimes occurs
of a rich variegated green hue. The other is the smaller,
but more common, Viviparous Lizard (Zootoca vivipara),
whose interesting peculiarity is expressed in its name, that
of producing a living progeny, most Reptiles laying eggs.
The difference between these two conditions is, however,
less important than it at first appears; for there is every
reason to believe, that in this case, as well as in that of the
Viper (Pelias berus), which is also viviparous, the egg-
covering, which is merely a parchment-like membrane,
and very thin, is ruptured in the act of parturition.
The most remarkable genus in this Order, and, indeed,
in many respects, the most extraordinary and anomalous
of all Vertebrate animals, are the Chameleons, of fabulous
and poetic celebrity. They are Lizards inhabiting trees
in the warmer countries of the Old World, with a great
development of head, and a shagreened skin. As the
Monkeys of South America are fitted for their arboreal
habits by grasping hands and a prehensile tail, so is the
Chameleon, by a curious modification of the common
Lizard organisation. The toes are five, as in the majority
of Saurians, but these are arranged in two sets, three in
one set and two in the other, each set being enveloped in
the common skin as far as the claws. These two parcels
of toes are opposed to each other, and thus each foot forms
a true grasping hand, and is used in the manner which
this structure indicates; the Chameleon moving with slow
and deliberate steps, always grasping with a firm hold the
branch on which it is creeping, before the other feet are
relaxed for a fresh step. The tail is round and prehensile


REPTILES.
299
at the tip, like that of the American Monkeys; its under
surface is roughenH with small granulated papilla, as is
that of the toes aw, probably in order to the more deli-
cate perception of the surface grasped. The tongue
affords an analogy to the same organ in the Woodpeckers,
no less singular than that of the feet; for, though ordina-
rily concealed within the mouth, it is capable of being
darted forward at its insect prey, and, being furnished
with a glutinous secretion, secures it by its adhesiveness.
A most extraordinary aspect is communicated to these

Cli;um:!con.
Reptiles by the structure and movements of their eyes.


REPTILES.
301
dissected. The tail in this group is very muscular, and
is compressed throughout its length; it thus forms a
powerful swimming organ, especially as its upper edge is
frequently surmounted with a crest of flattened elevated
scales. These large and powerful Lizards, which are often
five feet in length, and stout in proportion, usually endea-
vour to overcome their prey by dragging it into a river
and drowning it.
In all these particulars we see an approach to those
mighty tyrants of tropical rivers, the Crocodiles, which
have been celebrated from remotest antiquity as the very
impersonation of bestial power and ferocity. The noble
description of Leviathan in the book of Job—the climax
of those majestic interrogatories wherewith Jehovah
withered the pride of his too audacious servant—is a
picture of one of these Eeptiles, drawn from the life by
the master-hand of Him who made it.
"Who can open the doors of his face 1 his teeth are
terrible round about. His scales are his pride, shut up
together as with a close seal. One is so near to another,
that no air can come between them. They are joined one
to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sun-
dered. By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes
are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go
burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. Out of his
nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething-pot or caldron.
His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his
mouth. In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is
turned into joy before him.
"The flakes of his flesh are joined together: they are
firm in themselves;- they cannot be moved. His heart is


KKPTILES.
303
acquiesce in the propriety of the concluding epithet—
"King over all the children of pride."
If space in these pages permitted, we should delight to
trace the transition, through the fierce Chelydra of Florida,
from the Crocodiles to the Tortoises. But we must be
content with directing our readers' attention to the con-
trast which subsists between one of these latter, enclosed
as it is in an immoveable box of bone, with only an open-
ing in front at which to poke out its head and hands, and
a similar hole behind for its tail and hind limbs, waddling
along with painfully slow and heavy tread;—the contrast,
we say, between such a creature and the lithe Snake, the
very type of flexibility, altogether destitute of limbs, yet
shooting along with an undulating velocity that the eye of
the gazer can scarcely follow.


CHAPTER XXXII.
Aves (Birds).
Everyrody loves Birds. The pinafored schoolboy dares
the awful frown of the pedagogue, and his birch too, that
he may peer into the brambles and hedgerow-trees, for the
callow young which he desires to rear. The fair maiden
teaches her pet canary to hop on her finger and take his
sugar from her own sweet lips, bestowing on him the kisses
which many a bigger biped would be proud to share. The
solitary weaver, gray with premature age induced by cease-
less toil, hangs his thrush in wicker outside his shattered
casement, and throws his shuttle more blithely as he listens
to the mellow notes which carry him back to the fields and
groves of his boyhood. The weather-beaten sailor greets
the little land-bird with a hearty welcome, that flutters on
feeble wing around his ship, clinging to the shrouds an3
stays, and loves the tiny messenger that tells him of his
approach to his native shore. The world's care must have
indurated that heart, indeed, that can hear without a gush
of emotion the sweet melody of a singing-bird!
We must not, however, just now consider the bird as a
loveable little pet, but look at it physiologically as an
animal—as one of the meshes in the grand net-work of
organic existence. We call it a biped, but structurally a


300
LIFE, IN ITs HIGHER FORMS.
upon the air, would be comparatively powerless as a means
of locomotion, if that limb were in the condition which it
presents when the cook puts the bird on the spit. The
breadth of the oar and its hold upon the element through
which it is to move are, therefore, increased by a most ad-
mirable contrivance. The quill-feathers, inserted along one
edge of the arm, and radiating outwards and backwards,
like a fan, answer the purpose proposed. Just look at the
quill-feather from a bird's wing. With how small an ex-
penditure of material is a broad surface obtained! How
slight and apparently feeble is the structure, when examined
fibre by fibre; and yet how firmly and compactly it binds
together, and how strongly the expanded web resists the
air! Breadth, strength, and lightness were the requisites,
and, incompatible as they might have appeared, they are
here exquisitely combined.
Even such instruments as these, however, would not
avail to lift the animal from the earth, and to bear it with
ease and rapidity through the thin air, were its body of the
same density as that of a quadruped. It must, therefore,
be made buoyant, and this buoyancy is secured by several
concurrent ordinances. In the first place, the whole of the
muscles are abundantly supplied with blood, which passes
through a heart of four chambers, with a rapidity far greater
than that which obtains in terrestrial animals. Secondly,
to supply the oxygen which is required for the vitalising of
this swiftly circulating blood, a peculiar system of respira-
tion is required. The lungs are very large—spongy masses
of blood-vessels lying along each side of the back-bone, and
bound down to it: through these the bronchi, or divisions
of the windpipe, pass; and, opening into the general cavity


308
LIFE, IX ITS HIOHER FORMS.
pithy substance, hollowed at the lower end into a horny
tube, containing the blood-vessels by which it is sustained;
and the vane, a double series of parallel thin plates, one on
each side the shaft, set at an angle to it, which are them-
selves furuished at their edges with a similar though
smaller series. In all feathers which are destined to strike
the air, these branchlets are hooked into one another, so
as to preseut a continuous surface of astonishing firmness.
The relation which the general clothing-plumage of the
body bears to flight—though less direct and obvious than
that of the quills—is by no means small. "From the
mode in which the feathers, and all their parts, are laid
upon the bird, it presents a smooth surface upwards and
forwards, so that the animal can move in either of these
directions, with very little resistance from the friction of
the air. When it moves in either of them, the resistance
of friction does not increase so rapidly as the rate of motion;
because the pressure smooths the feathers, and causes the
air to take less hold on them. This property, which arises
in part from the texture of the upper surface of the feathers,
but chiefly from the way in which they are formed and
placed, is of equal service to birds when they must perch,
or otherwise remain at rest, so as to abide the blast, as
when they fly exposed to it. Perching or flying, when a
bird is in the wind it always faces the current; and thus
offers the least resistance both by its form and its feathers.
"When, however, the feathers are taken in the opposite
directions, they offer as much increase of resistance as they
offer diminution when they are taken above or in front.
The wings are always more or less hollow on the under
sides, and they take hold of the air by millions of fibres


310
LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS.
Peregrine Falcon is said to pluck, to disjoint, and to carve
its prey with as clean a cut and as prompt a skill as the
most accomplished "table-anatomist" could display. In
the Woodpeckers, which dig out their food and excavate
their dwellings from the solid timber of trees, the beak is
an effective chisel. In the Snipe and Woodcock it is a

a. Beak of Falcon. b. Beak of Snipe.
long and slender probe, furnished at the tip with copious
nerves of sensation, for feeling in the deep earth of bogs
and marshes. In the Parrots it is a climbing hook, a sort
of third foot (or rather hand) as well as a fruit-knife. In
the Ducks it is a pair of flat spoons, for scooping up the
slush of ponds; and in the Gannet it is a strong and sharp
fish-spear.
Versatile as is the beak in different tribes of birds, it no-
where performs a proper masticating function; it may
divide flesh; it may crack a nut, and, with the assistance
of the tongue, shell it; it may separate the grain from the
husk, as we see the Goldfinch and Canary constantly do
with their hempseed; but the nearest approach to a chew-
ing action that we at this moment recollect, is the bruising
down of hard seeds by means of a knob in the middle of
the palate, as in the Buntings (Emberizacke). The conse-
quence of this general absence of masticating power is, that


BIRDS.
313
mer nights, when the Dipper, the Sedge-warbler, and above
all, the Nightingale, are awake, and pouring forth rich and
solemn melody. "He that at midnight," says Izaak Walton,
"when the very labourer sleeps securely, should hear, as I
have very often, the clear airs, the sweet descants, the na-
tural rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling of her
voice, might well be lifted up above earthe, and say, Lord,
what musicke has Thou provided for Thy saints in heaven,
when Thou affordest bad men such musicke upon earthe !H
One might make a volume with extracts from the poets
in honour of the Nightingale—from Homer, who fancies
her wailing and mourning her woes, down to Coleridge,
who considers it high treason against common sense to
suppose there is anything melancholy in Nature.
"We have lcarn'd
A different lore: we may not thus profane
Nature's sweet voices, always full of love
And joyance! 'Tis the merry Nightingale,
That crowds, and hurries, and precipitates
With fast, thick warble his delicious notes,
As he were fearful that an April night
Would be too short for him to utter forth
His love-chant, and disburthen his full soul
Of all its music! ....
Far aud near,
In wood and thicket, over the wide grove,
They answer and provoke each other's songs,
With skirmish and capricious passagings,
And murmurs musical, and ewift jug, jug:
And one low, piping sound, more sweet than all*
Stirling the air with such an harmony,
That should you close your eyes, you might almost
Forget it was not day."
The Mocking-bird (Orpheus polyglottus) of the Western
World, rivals the Nightingale in the compass, mellowness,
and brilliant execution of its song, which it also delights to


CHAPTER XXXIII.
Avbs (Birds).
Continued.
We well remember the wondering delight with which, in
childish days, we gazed on a Chaffinch's nest. An elder
companion had found it in the fork of an oak, and climb-
ing up to the place, he drew aside the leafy twigs and re-
vealed the beautiful little dwelling to our eager eyes. The
particular construction of that particular one, we cannot,
of course, pretend to describe, for it is a great many years
ago, and the note-book was not then so familiar to our
hand as it has been since, but a vivid impression of the
general appearance remains. Indeed, the spruce, smart
little Chaffy builds one of the prettiest of British nests;
the Goldfinch's is somewhat more compact, and, being
composed more of one substance, is neater, but we scarcely
know whether we do not more admire the Chaffinch's. Of
course you have seen both; Chaffy's certainly, because it
is so common and so easily found.
What a beautiful cup of interwoven moss it is!—at
least the frame-work, the exterior! The pretty feather-
moss (Hypnum) is chosen for this, because it grows in long
strings, and binds well together; but this is only the outer


BIRDS.
317
long^ strings of moss around the contiguous branches, and
binding them with felted wool, thus weaving the bush itself
into the common structure. It is because of this con-
nexion that it is next to impossible to take a nest without
so damaging it as nearly to destroy all its beauty; it can-
not be removed without being almost torn to pieces. Then
it must be adorned with little bits of gray and yellow and
green lichens, stuck on the outside and bound down with
cobweb, which doubtless greatly improve the beauty of
their house in the eyes of the tasteful owners—Mr and
Mrs Chaffy.
Well, then, the exterior is finished :—now it must be
lined. Moss and wool are soft and warm, but something
softer and warmer must be procured before it is a fit
cradle for five naked tender birdlings. Besides, it must be
made smoother than it is. Now the birds go a-searching
along the lanes and over the commons for stray hairs, es-
pecially those of cows and of rabbits and hares; these they
introduce, and, coiling them round the cavity, render it
beautifully smooth and .globular. The soft small body-
feathers of -other birds are then sought, particularly those
of the ducks in the farm-yard, and interwoven with the
hair; and the structure, now complete, is looked on with
complacency by the industrious pair. The Chaffinch,
however, does not make so much use of feathers for lining
as some other of our small birds.
The Goldfinch, as we have said above, makes a more
compact structure than this, as it is careful not to leave a
single projecting sprig of moss or filament of down, bind-
ing down the whole into a smoothly felted surface. It is
fond of moss and wool, but does not much use hair or


BIRDS.
319
the half of a walnut, made of a bay-coloured down, the
produce of the silk-cotton tree, most compactly inter-
woven, and mingled with the glossy down of an Asclepias.
Externally it is quite covered with spiders' webs, crossed
and recrossed in every direction, and made to adhere by
some viscous substance, evidently applied after the web
was placed, probably the saliva of the bird" These webs
are used to confine little bits of pale-green lichen, which
are stuck about here and there, and impart a rustic pretti-
ness to it. To see a bird sitting in a cup like this is very
amusing. Small as is the species, it seems impossible that
it should be able to crumple itself up sufficiently to be con-
tained in so tiny a cavity, especially when two eggs are
lodged in the bottom; but the incubation is managed.
The head and tail are both excluded, the latter projecting
erect; the belly and feet alone are contained within the
circumference, which they completely fill.
A volume * of great interest has been written, devoted
exclusively to the various kinds, forms and materials of
birds' nests; and the subject is far from exhausted. We,
as yet, know comparatively little of the nests which are
constructed by the hundreds of species of birds from
foreign, especially intertropical, countries, that crowd the
shelves of our museums. Yet, among those with which
intelligent travellers have made us acquainted, are found
some of the most curious and admirable examples of the
constructive faculty.
Thus the Baya, or Indian Sparrow (Ploceus Philippensis),
described by Sir William Jones and others, is said to make
a nest "of grass, which he weaves like cloth, and shapes
* Reimio's "Architecture of Birds." London, 1831.


iJIKJUS.
larly as three-fourths of it appeared to be entirely useless
and idly made; for the part which was to contain the
eggs, and which was alone indispensable, was not more
than three inches from the surface. All the rest of this
edifice, which was a tissue closely and laboriously woven
of slender threads taken from the bark of certain shrubs,
seemed to be totally useless. The interior of the nest was
not furnished with any sort of soft material, such as down,
wool, or hair; but as the female bad not laid her eggs when
Klaas brought it to me, it is probable that the nest was
not quite finished; a fact, indeed, proved by the birds being
still at work at the time." *
In Jamaica, we have seen an interesting nest made by a

Nest of Banana-bird.
Starling, of brilliant black and yellow plumage, and pro-
* "Oi«. d'Afrique," iii. 129.


324
LIFE, IN IIS H1QHUK FOBJIS.
siUs) far exceed ours in ingenious adaptation for security
and defence. Pringle describes them as suspended, twenty
or more from a single tree, attached to the tips of those
twigs that hang over a precipice. The body of the nest is
spherical, and the entrance, which is always from below, is
through a cylindrical gallery of twelve or fifteen inches in
length, which projects from the body, exactly like the neck
of a chemist's retort. The whole fabric is most ingeniously
and elegantly woven of a species of very tough grass. The
object of the precaution displayed in the construction, and
in the position chosen, is evidently the protection of the
eggs and young from the baboons and monkeys that would
otherwise devour them.*
We must reluctantly close our enumeration of singular
nests, with one, whose chief curiosity is the exhibition of
that sooial instinct, which, as in the bees, wasps, and ants,
among Insects, prompts each individual to work on a com-
mon plan for the general good. The Pensile Grosbeaks,
just described, associate in their domestic economy, but
there is no union of labour. Another bird of the same
family, and of the same country—the Sociable Grosbeak
(Loxia socio) of South Africa—builds in concert a huge
irregular sloping roof of thatch around the stem of a tall
tree, beneath the eaves of which each pair of birds builds
its own nest. So numerous are they, however, that the
nests are in contact with each other, and appear to form
but one structure, distinguished only by the little aperture
of each. Le Vaillant describes one roof which he examined,
which contained beneath its eaves three hundred and
twenty inhabited cells.
* Ephemerlde*


BUtDS.
32?
We have devoted this article to nests; but there are
some examples of architectural skill among birds, which
require a passing notice, though they are constructed for
a very different purpose. We allude to the playing galle-
ries of the Bovver-birds of Australia, specimens of which
may be seen in the British Museum and in the Zoological
Gardens at the Regent's Park. The Spotted Bower-bird
{Chlamydera maculata), for instance, collects twigs and
sticks, and builds them so as to form a long tunnel or
gallery, cylindrical interiorly, where it is lined with long
grass. The birds then bring together large quantities of
stones, shells, and fragments ot bone, with which the floor
is paved; this pavement, which expands beyond the open-
ing at each end, serves to strengthen the structure and
keep it steady. Besides this, they carefully search for the
gaily-coloured leathers of parrots and other birds, which
they interweave into the sides of their bower, and also
arrange the whitest stones and shells in the most conspi-
cuous places, with a keen eye to ornament. The gallery
being complete, the birds use it for play, chasing each
other through it; and that not only by pairs, but nume-
rous individuals associating to use (and, therefore, probably
to build) the same gallery. One of these bowers, now in
the British Museum, was, when found, four feet long and
eighteen inches high.


CHAPTER XXXIV.
Mammalia (Quadrupeds).
By universal consent, those animals which we generally
call Quadrupeds are placed in the highest rank of organic
life. Perhaps it would be scarcely true to say that a
Guinea-pig or an Ant-eater is superior in energy and de-
velopment to a Falcon, superior in those characters which
determine relative rank in being; but this only shews—
what we have had repeated occasion to state—that the
range of animal existences cannot be included in a linear
scries. The Ant-eater and the Guinea-pig are members
of a great group of creatures, which are manifestly asso-
ciated together by a closer bond than that which allies
them, or any one of them, to other creatures; and this
great group possesses, as a whole and characteristically,
though in degrees differing inter se, the various senses,
powers, and faculties, both bodily and mental, that belong
to an animal in a higher state of development, than any
other equivalent group.
Tho term "Quadruped" is applicable to this Class, not
in scientific strictness, but only in popular freedom of
speech. One whole Order—that of the Whales and Dol-
phins—is entirely destitute of the hinder pair of limbs,
and the external form of their body is fish-like, as are also


QUADKUPEDS.
327
their habits of life and the medinm in which they reside;
yet these animals have far greater pud more important
affinities with Quadrupeds than with Fishes, and must
therefore be grouped with the former rather than with the
latter.
The term "Mammalia," derived from mamma (the fe-
male breast), suggests a character of great physiological
value and of invariable application, by which the creatures
of this class are distinguished from all others. They suckle
their young, which are in all cases brought forth alive (t. e.
not enclosed in eggs), and are nourished for a time with
milk, a fluid secreted in the body of the female parent.
As, with the trivial exception of the Bats, which flutter
in the air, the sphere of this Class is the solid earth or the
dense water; the provisions for that energetic respiration
and for that high temperature of the blood, which are
necessary for Birds, are wanting here. In other respects,
however, the respiratory and circulating systems do not
essentially differ in the two Classes.
The jaws are, almost invariably, furnished with teeth,
which play an important part in the economy of the
animal, being intimately associated with its sustenance.
They are solid pieces of bone covered with a much harder
substance called enamel, which grow out of sockets in each
jaw. They are placed in single series, and vary much in
form, according to the nature of the food which sustains
the animal, as well as according to their position in the
mouth. In Man, there are in each half of each jaw two
front teeth with a chisel-like edge, called Incisors, or cut-
ting teeth; one more pointed, called the Canine, or Dog-
tooth, or sometimes Eve-tooth; two somewhat flattened at


QUADRUPEDS.
foot can never be anything else than an instrument of loco-
motion. In the Apes and Monkeys, the feet become
hands; all of them having a thumb set on a different line
from the other toes, and susceptible of being opposed to

Hands of
a. Bat; b. Mole; c. Dolphin.
them, whereby the prehensile power is immensely increased,
and the capabilities of the organ are greatly varied.
In all these cases, all of the extremities are of the same
form, but there are some in which the fore and hind feet
differ from each other. Thus, in the Bats, while the hind
feet have five short clawed toes, the fore ones have the first
four fingers immensely lengthened, like the ribs of an um-
brella, across which a delicate membrane is stretched, and
thus the fore limbs become organs of flight. And in Man,
who, by his organic nature, comes into this Class, the feet
are merely fitted for walking, while the anterior extremi-
ties, forming hands incomparably more delicate and more


330
LIKE, IN ITS HIOHEIi FORMS.
versatile than those of the Apes, are capable of executing
by their skill or power the wonderfully various require-
ments of his reason. Finally, the anterior members of
the Whales, which, as has been already observed, are all
that they possess, are mere swimming fins, the bones of
the toes being imbedded in a dense and leathery skin, which
reveals no trace of their individual form or division.
The body in the Mammalia is covered more or less
densely with hairs, which, if less elaborate and complex
than the feathers of Birds, are still interesting in their
structure. A hair is a long pointed cylinder of horny sub-
stance, formed within a minute cavity on the surface of
the body, and growing by continual additions to its base.
The cavity is lined by a reflection of the common skin, and
contains a vascular pulp well supplied with nerves and »
blood-vessels. From the surface of this pulp the horny
substance of the hair is secreted, which, perpetually in-
creasing from below, pushes upward the portion already
formed, and thus increases in length.
"Various are the appearances," observes Professor Jones,
"and widely different the uses, to which epidermic appen-
dages, in every way analogous to hair, both as relates to
their composition and mode of growth, may be converted:
the wool of the Sheep, the fur of the Babbit, the spines of
the Hedgehog, the quills of the Porcupine, the scaly cover-
ing of the Manis, and even the armour that defends the
back of the Armadillo, are all of them but modifications of
the same structures, adapted to altered conditions, under
which the creatures live. Even the horn upon the snout
of the Rhinoceros is but an agglomeration of hairy fila-
ments formed upon a broad and compound pulp. The


QUADRUPEDS.
3Si
nails and claws that arm the fingers and toes, the corneous
sheath that invests the horns of the Ox and Antelope—'
nay, the hoofs of herbivorous quadrupeds, are all epidermic
secretions from the vascular cutis, or, in other words, are
hairs altered in their form and extent, according to the exi-
gencies of the case."*
Many of the hoofed Quadrupeds are armed with horns,
which differ greatly in structure from those of the Rhino-
ceros and the Ox. Those of the Deer family, whether pal-
mated like those of the Elk, branched like those of the
Stag, or simple like those of the American Roes, are annual
growths of bone, which are shed and renewed periodically.
In an old well-antlered Hart, a "Stag of ten," such as our
old poets delight to describe, the process of renewal is ono
of amazingly rapid energy. In the spring the bony knobs
on the skull, covered with skin, begin to swell, tides of
blood rush to the head, and great heat and tenderness cha-
racterise the prominences. The arteries deposit bone with
great rapidity, and the budding-horns grow daily, still
covered by a vascular skin, which is, indeed, a tissue of
blood-vessels. The skin is covered with a dense short
hair, which is technically called " the velvet."
At length the horns, with their branches and antlers,
are fully formed, and are still covered with this velvety
skin, which is highly sensitive. The arteries now begin to
deposit a rough ring of bone around the base, which
grooves, through which the great arteries pass. Gradually
these grooves are filled up with bony matter, and the
arteries, compressed by the constantly added matter,
transmit less and less blood to the "velvet," until at
* "Gen. Outline of Anim. King ," p. 088.


332
LltH, IX ire HlGliLK iOKMS.
length the latter receives no more. It now dies for lack
of sustenance: shrivels, dries, and peels off in shreds, or
is rubbed oft by the animal against the trees and palings.
The horns are now no longer sensitive, but can be used as
effective weapons of offence. After a time, however, the
thick ring of bone begins to be absorbed, particle by
particle, and the absorptive process goes on until a com-
plete separation of the horn is effected, which then falls off
by its own weight from the basal prominence. The
latter is presently covered with skin, and awaits the
return of spring to bud anew.
The geographical distribution of animals is a subject of
great interest to the naturalist; that is, the manner in
which we find particular species either spread over con-
siderable portions of the world, confined to small tracts of
country, or appearing in remote but isolated regions. No
country affords more interesting phenomena connected with
this subject than the contineut of Australia with its cir-
cumjacent islands. Excluding the Seals and Whales of its
coasts, the Mammalia known to inhabit this great region—
as large as Europe—amount to about a hundred and twenty
species, the whole of which are absolutely confined to it.
Of these about a hundred are marked by some remarkable
peculiarities of structure, which have induced zoologists to
separate them from all other Mammalia, forming them
into a Sub-class by themselves, under the name of Mar-
supialia. In order to appreciate the importance of these
facts, we must look at the part which this Sub-class plays
in the zoology of other parts of the world. The total


334
LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS.
from the high development of the placental Mammalia,
aud an approach to that of the oviparous Vertebrata in
general, and to that of the Reptilia in particular.
This affinity with Reptiles is most marked in two very
singular little animals, the Echidna and the Ornithorhynchus.
They are the lowest forms of Mammalia, displaying some
points of similarity to Birds, hut more to the Lizards,
especially in the structure of the sternum or breast hone,
of the shoulder, and of the limbs generally. The latter in
particular, known as the Duck-bill, caused, no little
astonishment and even suspicion, among zoologists, when
the first specimens were sent from New Holland to
Europe. Here was a four-legged animal, covered with
hair, but having the feet webbed like a water-fowl, and
furnished with a beak closely resembling that of a duck!
For a long time it was believed that the reproduction of
this most anomalous creature was by means of eggs; but
it is now ascertained to produce living young, which are
suckled like those of other quadrupeds. Mr G. Bennet
has described, in a very interesting Memoir,* the habits
of life of these curious creatures.
Few as are the members composing this Sub-class, they
include what we may consider as the parallels or represen-
tatives of most of the Orders of the typical Mammalia.
Thus the Opossums, in their opposible thumbs, seem to re-
present the Monkeys, the little Myrmecobius the Shrews,
and the Kangaroos the Ruminants; while more strongly
drawn analogies exist between the Dasyuri (the "Zebra-
wolf," " Native-devil," ike, of the Australian colonist) aud
the Carnivora, between the Phalangistce and Petauri, and
* "Trans, of Zool. Soc ," to], i. p. 229.


QUADRUPEDS.
337
its muscular strength. It feeds on ants, and on termites,
or 'white ants, as they are called, whose great houses of
cemented earth, that are so common in tropical forests, are
torn to pieces by these great claws, that the swarming in-
sects may be exposed and devoured. And this last opera-
tion is not less singular than other parts of the economy
of this creature. Its mouth, long and tubular, is entirely
destitute of teeth, but contains a tongue of great length,
ordinarily folded on itself, and capable of rapid protrusion
to a long distance. When the termites crowd to the
broken surface of their nest, as is their custom, the shrewd
Ant-bear darts into the midst of them his long tongue
covered with a glutinous secretion, and as swiftly draws it
back into his mouth, densely covered with the adhering
insects.
This curious animal is a fair representative of a group
which includes the lowest forms of the true or placental
Mammalia—the Class Edentata. As Australia is the
great centre of the Marsupialia, so South America is the
home of the Edentata, of which the Sloths and the Arma-
dillos are, after the example just described, the most impor-
tant living members. But recent discoveries have exhumed
from the soil of the same continent other and far more
gigantic representatives of the Class, the Megatheriums
and Mylodons, the vast bulk of whose bones indicates that
their strength must have been as irresistible as their forms
were colossal. Professor Owen, who built up, bone by
bone, that noble "skeleton of an extinct gigantic Sloth,"
that stands—a monument of his skill and knowledge—in
the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, has given
some interesting deductions respecting its mode of life.


QUADRUPEDS.
339
altogether destitute of canines, and then- incisors, which are
separated by a great blank space from the molars, are
furnished with enamel only
on one side. They project
in their sockets, they are Skull of Rodent,
continually growing. These peculiarities have a direct
relation to the habits of the animals; for they live
upon food, usually hard and solid, which they gnaw
away atom by atom, with the tips of these projecting
teeth. For this work it is needful that the tips of the
teeth, which meet and play upon each other, should have
a sharp chisel-like edge, and this result follows from the
provision above mentioned, that the hard enamel is con-
fined to the front side of the tooth; the bony portion of
the tip, being soft, wears away more rapidly than the
enamel of the front, which thus always presents a sharp
cutting edge. The constant growth, too, just balances the
ordinary wear of the teeth in eating, so that they are main-
tained in constant opposibility to each other. The perfec-
tion of this balance becomes manifest, when, by accident,
one of the incisor teeth is lost; for, in this case, the oppo-
site tooth, having no wear, grows out to a monstrous length,
maintaining its original curve throughout, and becomes a
tusk, which in time presents a bar to the reception of food,
and death by starvation ensues.
Strange as it may be thought, there is an affinity by no
means obscure, between these minute animals and the
from the front of each jaw in
a curve; and, as they have
no roots, but spring from a
pulpy germ deeply embedded


340
LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS.
greatest of quadrupeds—between the Mouse and the Ele-
phant. Not to speak of the similarity in form of many of
their bones, and their jaws formed of parallel laminae, the
latter is, like the former, destitute of canines, while its
incisors assume a curved direction, and project from the
mouth as great tusks. The molars of the Elephant, like
those of the Guinea-pig, are composed of a number of ver-
tical transverse laminae of bone, each covered with enamel,
cemented together by a third substance closely similar to
ivory. "This last substance, being much softer than the
enamel, wears away faster by the mastication of the food,
so that the enamel remains considerably higher, and, in
tbis manner, the surface of each grinder acquires a ribbed
appearance, as it originally formed with ridges. From
very accurate observations which have been made on the
Asiatic Elephant, it appears that the first set of grinders,
or milk-teeth, begin to cut the jaw eight or ten days after
birth, and the grinders of the upper jaw appear before
those of the lower one. These milk-grinders are not shed,
but are gradually worn away during the time the second
set are coming forward, and, as soon as the body of the
grinder is nearly worn away, the fangs begin to be ab-
sorbed. From the end of the second to the beginning of
the sixth year, the third set come gradually forward as the
jaw lengthens, not only to fill up this additional space, but
also to supply the place of the second set, which are during
the same period gradually worn away, and have their
fengs absorbed. From the beginning of the sixth to the
end of the ninth year, the fourth set of grinders come for-
ward, to supply the gradual waste of the third set. In
this manner, to the end of life, the Elephant obtains a set


QUADRUPEDS.
341
of new teeth, as the old ones become unfit for the masti-
cation of its food."*
In the Ruminantia generally the dentition is still in-
complete; the incisors are absent from the upper jaw, the
gums forming there a callous pad to receive the action of
the lower teeth. Canines are found only in a few families.
It is not until we reach the Unguiculate or Clawed
quadrupeds that we see the full complement of teeth.
Among the Caenivoea, for example, both the upper and
under jaws are armed with molars, canines, and incisors;
the molars terminate in triangular cutting lobes, the
canines are stout, conical, and pointed; and the incisors
numerous, but small, flattened, and chisel-shaped. And
this seems to be the most perfect form of dentition in the
Animal Kingdom, that which belongs to a type of organi-
zation in which the characteristic attributes of an animal
are most fully developed.
Let us, then, examine one of the Cat tribe (Felidce) a
little more in detail. How admirably every part of the
structure is adapted to one end—the capture and destruc-
tion of living active prey—and how thoroughly all the
organs, and all the parts of the body, are ancillary to each
other! The feet—the front pair in particular—are armed
with five strong, hooked, compressed, sharp talons. These
are the weapons principally relied on for dealing the death-
blow; it is needful, therefore, that they be kept always
clean, pointed, and in order. A beautiful mechanism
secures this. Every child knows, who has handled the
velvet paw of a Cat, that, in its ordinary condition, the
talons are quite concealed, but that in excitement they
* Corse, in Brewster's "Encyclop."


342
LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS.
are forcibly thrown forward. The last joint of each toe,
the tip of which is encased by the claw, is, in rest, drawn
back, either upon, or at the side of, the preceding joint,
by the force of two elastic ligaments. From this-position
it is in an instant extended, by the contraction of a muscle
beneath the toe, the tendon of which passes under the head
of the last joint, as under a pulley, and is attached to the
base of the claws. When the contraction ceases, the claw
again springs back to its place, and lies concealed in a
deep fold of the skin.
The ordinary mode in which a feline animal, from the
Lion down to the House-cat, disables its victim, is by a
sudden powerful blow with the fore-paw. To make this
stroke effective, it is necessary that the arm should be
moved by vigorous muscles. Perhaps some of our readers
may have felt, to their cost, how stinging a blow can be
inflicted by the paw of an angry Cat. It has been truly
observed, that, in the limbs of the Felidm, we behold the
finest display of muscular development which can be con-
ceived. The dissected arm of a Lion or Tiger is a subject
worthy the study of an artist. The muscles are dense,
well-knit, short, but peculiarly thick and firm, and they
are arranged for flexure or extension, for turning the face
of the paw upward or downward, for the forward, lateral,
or downward stroke, exactly as they are in man. The
Tiger has been known to fracture the skull of a man with
one stroke of its paw.
The Cats do not in general pursue their prey by the
exercise of speed, but either creep up stealthily towards it
until they arrive near enough to make the fatal bound, or
lie in wait for its approach. Then, when the keen eye,


QUADRUPEDS.
343
well practised to judge of distance, esteems the requisite
proximity attained, one vigorous bound brings the active
murderer full on its victim with prodigious force; the paw,
with distended claws, inflicting a violent blow at the
moment of descent. For these movements there are pecu-
liar provisions. The lithe and flexible spine, accompanied
by the power of the muscles, enables the Cat to throw
itself forward with these sudden energetic bounds; while
the same properties, combined with the shortness, freedom,
and flexibility of its limbs, allow it to crouch close, to creep
along with the belly on the ground, as every one has seen
the domestic Cat do, when contemplating a mouse, or any
other object which awakens her energy. The noiseless
tread, also, so essential to the animal's purpose in stealing
unperceived on its victim, is provided for, partly by the
retraction of the claws already noticed, partly by the soft
fur in which the feet are imbedded, but principally by the
spongy pads which are seen beneath the toes. These pads
have another use, even more important still; for they serve
by their elasticity to lessen the shock, which otherwise
would ensue to the nervous system, in descending from
their vigorous bounds.
The prey being thus slain, or at least disabled, other
ordinances of supreme Wisdom become apparent in pro-
viding for its appropriation. The teeth, already alluded
to, come into requisition. A grinding action is not
required; the flesh has merely to be divided into portions
sufficiently small to be swallowed, and hence the teeth are
all cutters. Look at what, from their normal action in
other animals, we call the molars; their summits form
lancet-like edges, clothed with the hardest enamel, and the


344
LIFE, IS ITS HIGHER FORMS.
lower ones shut close within the upper. Hence the action
of these teeth is exactly that of the blades of a pair of
ec'ssors, and the flesh and sinews are divided with the
greatest ease and precision.
The sharp and prominent bony ridges of the skull, the
strength and form of the zygomatic arches, and the size of
the temporal fossa, in-
dicate the immense
extent and volume of
the muscles that move
the jaws, the force of
which is increased by
the simplicity of the
movement required.
Skull of Tiger. There is no approach
to that lateral working of the jaws upon each other,
which we practise when we eat; nothing but a chopping
or cutting action, the jaws having only a hinge movement.
The muscles of the neck and breast are also particularly
large and powerful in the Cats, to enable them to carry
off or drag away their prey. A Lion has been seen to
bear away a young bullock in his mouth, as a cat would
carry a rat.
During the process of cutting up and swallowing the
flesh of the still quivering and palpitating prey, the warm
blood flows freely, and this appears to be eminently
grateful to the palate of the carnivorous tribes. They
frequently pause in the process to lick the flesh, and thus
to promote the flow of blood by exposing new blood-vessels.
To enable them to effect this, there is an exquisite provi-
sion. Every one is aware that the tongue of the common


CHAPTER XXXVI.
Mammalia {Quadrupeds).
Continued.
It has been a question among zoologists whether or not
Man ought to be considered as an animal, and to take hia
place in the System of Nature with a generic and specific
name. Some have decided in the affirmative, as Linnaeus,
who places Homo sapiens at the head of his Primates, and
Cuvier, who creates an order, "Bimanes" for the express
reception of the human species. Others, as Aristotle, Bay,
and Swainson, exclude him from their systems, and refuse
to assign him a zoological place. The grounds of this ex-
clusion are tersely expressed by the present Archhishop of
Canterbury, in the following words: "There is nothing
philosophical in the comparison of a being possessed of im-
proveable reason with one that is governed by natural
instinct, because there is no just affinity between the talents
which are compared."*
We incline to think, however, that both these hypo-
theses are true. Man, in regard to his body and soul, is
an animal, and is to be compared with other animals;—
he is the highest form in the highest Class; while it is in
* "Records of Creation," i. 13.


348
LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS.
of the Divine nature.* "Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God!"
To some it may appear strange that we should consider
the possession of a soul, as well as a body, common to the
Brutes with Man, and may possibly startle even some who
do not fall into the general mistake of confounding the soul
with the spirit. Yet it is evident that the inferior creatures
do manifest mental attributes. "The phenomena," ob-
serves Dr Prichard, "of feeling, of desire and aversion, of
love and hatred, of fear and revenge, and the perception
of external relations, manifest in the life of brutes, imply,
not only through the analogy which they display to the
human faculties, but likewise from all that we can learn
or conjecture of their particular nature, the superadded
principle, distinct from the mere mechanism of material
bodies. That such a principle must exist in all beings
capable of sensation, or of anything analogous to human
passions and feelings, will hardly be denied by those who
perceive the force of arguments which metaphysically de-
monstrate the immaterial nature of the mind." t
One of our most eminent physiologists has expressed the
same opinion. "When," observes Dr Carpenter, "we con-
trast the actions of Man and of the higher Vertebrata, with
those of the lower, we cannot but perceive that we gradu-
ally lose the indications of Intelligence and Will, as the
sources of the movements of the animal; whilst we see a
corresponding predominance of those which are commonly
denominated Instinctive, and which are performed (as it
'pould appear) in immediate respondence to certain sensa-
• 2 Pet. . 4. t "Nat. Hist, of Man."


350
LIKE, IX 1T3 UlOUEli FuIiMS.
Instinct has been defined* as a natural impulse to cer-
tain actions which animals perform without deliberation,
and without having any end in view, and without knowing
why they do them. It differs from intellect by the uner-
ring certainty of the means it employs, the uniformity of
its results, and the perfection of its works prior to, and in-
dependent of, all instruction or experience; and lastly, by
the pursuit of nothing beyond what conduces directly
either to the continuation of the individual or the propa-
gation of the kind. But the arts of rational creatures pro-
ceed slowly through diversified and oft-repeated experi-
ments, while the means they employ are always various,
and seldom the best and most appropriated
Assuming the correctness of this diagnosis, let us ex-
amine the source of the actions recorded in the following
anecdotes:—
"The battering-train going to the siege of Seringapatam
had to cross the sandy bed of a river that resembled other
rivers of the Peninsula, which leave, during the dry season,
hut a small stream of water running through them, though
their beds are mostly of considerable breadth, very heavy
for draught, and abounding in quicksands. It happened
that an artilleryman, who was seated on the tumbril of
one of the guns, by some accident fell off, in such a situa-
destitute of its peculiar tendency to build at certain angles, would be as re-
markable as for a human being to be destitute of the desire to eat when his
system should require food. Still the author would by no means maintain that
there are, even among Bees, no manifestations of intelligence; for a careful
study of their habits shews that they do profit by experience, in a maimer
that shews a certain amount of educability. And this faculty may not impro-
bably bo connected with ths presence of a rudimentary cerebrum, which is
capable of being distinguished from the sensorial centres that constitute tho
principal part of their cephalic ganglia."—Ibid. p. 694.
* Beattie, "Mor. Sci." I. ii. § a t "Penny Cyclop." xii. 497.


2J2
LIFE, l.V ITS HIGiiEK FORMS.
his own circle of information or observation), Which indi-
cate a comparatively high degree of reasoning power.
Wlio has not observed the intelligence of those Dogs which
lead the blind through crowded thoroughfares and danger-
ous places, always awake, not to their own comfort, but to
the safety of their unconscious masters? Montaigne has
seen one of these Dogs along the ramparts of a town leave
a smooth and uniform path and take a worse, in order to
lead his master from a too close proximity to the edge.
M. Fred. Cuvier, in his highly interesting description of
an Orang, brought to France by M. Decaen, makes the fol-
lowing statement. After alluding to its love for its owner,
he says: "This principle of affection generally induced our
Orang to seek the society of those persons with whom it
was acquainted, and to shun solitude, which was at all
times displeasing to it. On one occasion it exhibited for
this purpose a very remarkable degree of intelligence. It
was kept in a small room off a large saloon, usually occu-
pied by the members of the family, and had frequently
been observed to mount a chair which stood contiguous,
for the purpose of unbolting the door and joining the rest
of the company. At length the chair was removed to a
distant corner of the room for the express purpose of pre-
venting the intrusion; but scarcely had the door been shut
than it was again opened, and the Orang was seen in the
act of descending from the identical chair, which he had
carried back again to its old situation, to enable him to
mount up to the height of the bolt. It is certain that
the animal had never been taught to act in this manner,
nor had he ever seen others do so; the whole affair was the
result of his own natural reason, and differed in no respect


358
LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS.
being, would have been called the threatening of suicide.
Was it anything else in this Ape? Was not the act
evidently the result of a process of reasoning, founded on
his observation of the value his master set on him, and
comprehending the sorrow which the supposed loss would
produce? The cautiousness which determined that it
should be only a deceptive loss was a refinement of intellect,
almost human; it reminds us of that inimitable line of
Burns's—
"8pak o' loupin' owre a linn."
A kindred animal—the Siamang—shall afford us an
example of a mental principle very like conscience. The
Dog and Cat, however, often display its workings as well.
In Mr Bennet's " Wanderings," there is an account of this
Ape, which he was keeping. In the cabin, there was a
piece of soap, which had excited the Siamang's cupidity,
and for the abstraction of which he had been several times
scolded. One day Mr Bennet, while engaged in writing,
happened to see the Siamang engaged in his thievish
practices. "I watched him," says the observer, "without
his perceiving that I did so; he occasionally cast a furtive
glance towards the place where I sat. I pretended to
write; he, seeing me busily engaged, took up the soap and
moved away with it in his paw. When he had walked
half the length of the cabin, I spoke quietly, without
frightening him. The instant he found I saw him, he
walked back again, and deposited the soap nearly in the
same place whence he had taken it; thus betraying, both
by his first and last actions, a consciousness of having done
wrong.
We shall close these anecdotes with a very touching one


QUADRUPEDS.
359
illustrative at once of the most tender and faithful love,
aud of the deepest sorrow. After the Battle of Aughrim,
the bodies of the Irish were left where they fell, to the birds
of the air and the beasts of the field. Among them was an
Irish officer, who was killed and stripped in the battle. But
liis faithful Dog discovered his remains, and guarded the
body day and night; and though he fed with other dogs on
the slain around, yet he would not allow them or anything
else to touch the body of his master.. When all the dead
bodies were consumed, the other dogs departed; but this
one used to go in the night to the adjacent villages for food,
and presently return to the place where his master's bones
only were then left. Thus he continued from July, when
the battle was fought, till January following, when one of
Colonel Foulk's soldiers, who was quartered in the neigh-
bourhood, happening to go near the spot, the Dog, fearing
he came to disturb his master's bones, rushed upon the
man, who unslung his musket on the instant, and shot the
poor animal dead. He expired faithful as he had lived.
Here we take a respectful leave of our readers. We have
sought to lead them, rapidly but not unobservantly, through
the wide range of animated being. Our course has been
like that of a railway-passenger through a varied and fer-
tile country: it is but a small portion of the expanse that
falls under his brief and rapid glances, but then this affords
him a fair sample of the whole. We have left untouched
multitudes of details, not less interesting in themselves, nor
less suggestive than those which we have noticed; but
these may suffice to be the spokesmen of the vast band


INDEX.
Tape-worm, 118.
Tarantula, 191.
Thaumantias. 80.
Thread-cells, 69.
Thread-worms, 126.
Tintinnidae, 20.
Tortoise, 303.
Trachelocerca, 22.
Transformations of-
Butterfly, 161.
Dragonfly, 166.
Frogs, 275.
Star-flshes, 113.
Trepang, 112.
Tunicate, 235.
Turris, 80, 84.
Twin-worm, 125.
Vertebrata, 262.
Vibrio, 11.
Viper, 298.
Volvox, 21.
Vorticella, 12
Wasps, 172.
Water-fleas, 216.
Water-spider, 187.
Wentletrap, 246.
Wheel-bearers, 195.
Worms, 135-144.
Worms, Intestinal, 116-1291


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