ing so much necessarily oblige me to appear dog- 

 matic; to attempt to prove all the whys and where- 

 fores in this place would be to stretch this paper 

 to an inordinate length. Any reader who has the 

 mind to do so, may find ample substantiation in 

 a numerous literature or by a first-hand study of 

 the animal itself. 



So, to begin, whether it appears credible or not, 

 whether it is agreeable or not, whether it seems 

 ridiculous or not, accept my word for it that it is 

 nevertheless a fact that the squid is affiliated on 

 the one side with that most wondrously beautiful 

 creature, the pearly, or chambered nautilus, and 

 on the other side with the common oyster and the 

 clam. 



The shell in Loligo is degenerate, having been 

 reduced to a mere lengthened scale imbedded 

 within the mantle. This internal shell, lying 

 lengthwise in the place and the position one would 

 in higher animals expect to find a backbone, no 

 longer retains even its calcareous character but is 

 represented by a chitinous structure, or gladius, 

 called in reference to its peculiar shape, the "pen." 

 The squid is a mollusk that has outgrown its 

 house; the mantle and other conspicuous fleshy 



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