TUBULARIA. 69 



All this appeared to me very singular ; because it is unusual, at any 

 time, to obtain such facilities from transparence or otherwise, as to allow 

 disclosure of the hidden and mysterious operations of animal life. Per- 

 haps I might have comprehended the process advancing better had the 

 zoophyte borne an ascidioidal hydra, because the sanguiferous system is 

 visible in various species at their various stages. But I had no reason to 

 remove the hydra of the Tubular ia ramosa, from its alliance with the 

 structure of the polypus proper, in as far as that belongs to zoophytes of 

 the Tubularian or Sertularian tribe. 



Among the larger and more perfect animals, it is usually understood 

 that circulation by the sanguiferous system must advance in a regular and 

 uninterrupted course, else pernicious consequences follow. But, in as far 

 as I have seen, no such regularity is indispensable to the health or safety 

 of some of the lower animals ; nor can we even pronounce it permanent, 

 where transparence of the subject allows protracted observation. In that 

 before us, the circulation is sometimes accelerated, sometimes retarded — 

 nay, it is occasionally altogether suspended — ^yet without evident injury. 

 Further, there is much ground for assuming that the rate and proportion 

 of the current are in a certain measure dependent on the will of the ani- 

 mal, or on the exercise of its faculties over its own organic structure. 

 Amidst all this, we say the variable form of the soft bodied animals must 

 be specially kept in view, the extraordinary change and vast disproportion 

 produced of their different parts, and how much the whole system will be 

 affected by it. 



The provision of Nature for conducting a vivifying principle through- 

 out the whole extent of animal organization, whereby it shall impart 

 vigour to the remotest parts, surpasses all the admiration which mortals 

 can bestow upon it ; and this marvellous expedient is rendered still more 

 wonderful, by reflecting on the means adopted for its impregnation with 

 atmospheric qualities devised for the common sustentation of the universe. 

 Everything conspires to shew the grandeur of the plan from whence the 

 world has originated. Perhaps we shall at last find the apparent vast diffu- 

 sion in variety concentrated in some simple elements. 



The history of no tribe of living creatures has remained so long in 



