adhered, and placed it in a square vial of sea- 

 water, where it could be examined to better advan- 

 tage and on both sides. Literally to make head or 

 tail of such a shapeless creature would not be easy 

 from a superficial observation; but its numerous 

 eyes, some of which were ranged in irregular rows 

 along the margin, were most of them clustered 

 toward one end which marked this region as the 

 forebody. In all strictness it had no head. Its mouth 

 was a conspicuous orifice underneath in the center 

 of the body, where it served at once as the digest- 

 ive entrance and the vent. 



This describes the worm. It now remained to 

 identify it. For when once the name of a strange 

 creature is known, somehow a feeling of intimacy 

 is established. To borrow for a moment some of 

 the sesquipedalian words which garnish the litera- 

 ture of science, I found that this animal was clas- 

 sified as belonging to the phylum Platykelmmtkes, 

 class Turbellaria, order Polycladida, genus Stylo- 

 chopsis and the species littoralis; which, when 

 boiled down, means that it was planarian, the low- 

 est of all living worms. But for the convenience of 

 the reader as well as for the purpose of this record, 

 it shall be referred to only as a flatworm — then, 



[172] 



