of a Fossil Alcyonium. 403 
plexus capable of dilating, lengthening, and contracting, accord- 
ing to the impressions it received. The fasciculi are further con- 
nected by lateral processes, which increase the firmness and co- 
herence of the external integument. From the inner surface of 
the muscular envelopment arise innumerable tubuli, which pass 
direct to the ventricular cavity, and terminate in openings on its 
surface. Insome specimens a substance of a sponge-like appear- 
ance fills up the interstices between the tubuli, and probably is 
the remains of a membrane, which served in the recent animal to 
connect the tubes and assist in strengthening and uniting the 
whole mass. The sides of the ventricular cavity are generally 
about one-third of an inch in thickness. From the basis or pedicle 
proceed fibres by which the animal was attached to its appropriate 
habitation. These facts beautifully illustrate the anatomy and 
physiology of the funnel-like Alcyonium. We find it possessing a 
structure, simple yet admirable, and well adapted for the pur- 
poses of its existence; an external muscular coat, which enabled 
it to perform its requisite motions, and a ventricular cavity with 
an absorbing surface, by which nutrition was effected. We have, 
in short, the organs which Richerand considers as characteristic of 
zoophytal animation. “ The Zoophyte, whose name indicates an 
animal plant, is totally separated from all beings of the vegetable 
kingdom, by the existence of a cavity in which alimentary diges- 
tion is carried on; a cavity by the surface of which is an absorp- 
. tion, án imbibition, far more active than that which takes place 
by the external surface of the body.— We find a tube of soft sub- 
stance, sensible and contractile in all its parts. Moisture oozes — 
from the internal surface of the tube, softens and digests the ali- 
ments which it finds there ; the whole mass draws in nourishment 
. from it; the tube then spontaneously contracts, and casts out the 
residue of digestion." Richerand’s Physiology, pp. 8 and 13. 
VOL. XL 730 The 
