246 YAEIOUS FUNCTIONS OF ORGANS. 



Annelid. Still the situation of tliese arms is hardl} 

 such as we should expect, if this were their primary 

 object; and the elaborate construction of their jointed 

 blades seems contrived for some use more delicate 

 than that of a shoving-pole. Perhaps my readers may 

 expect that I have some suggestion to make, but I am 

 sorry to say I have not. I have not been able to dis- 

 cover any function that these elegant and exquisite 

 implements possess in addition to those just mentioned, 

 though I have little doubt that such function is to be 

 discovered. It is a common phenomenon for the same 

 organ to have two or more distinct and separate uses. 

 The human tongue and palate play an important pari 

 in tasting food, and preparing it for swallowing, and 

 also in the utterance of speech ; and in the worm 

 before us, the beautifully-painted leaflets are organs 

 of respiration, the blood (or rather, according to Dr. 

 "Williams, the peritoneal fluid) circulating through 

 them in spacious radiating canals, and receiving 

 oxygen from the currents which the marginal cilif 

 perpetually impel across their surface ; but they are 

 also organs of locomotion ; waved through the water, 

 and half-turned when the stroke is made, — as the 

 waterman ^^ feathers'''' his oar — it is easy to see that 

 the animal is actually rowed along, like one of the 

 galleys of the ancients, with a bank of three hundred 

 oars. " Natare valet lamellis suis retroversis, oblique 

 sursum erectis," — observes Fabricius of these elegant 

 animals. 



The following observations, whose beauty and truth 

 necessitate no apology for their quotation, are made 

 by one who is perhaps better qualified than any one 



