A GUIDE 



TO THE 



ZOOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS 



EXHIBITED IN THE 



INVERTEBRATE GALLERY 

 OF THE INDIAN MUSEUM. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



THE matter of which the terrestrial system consists is 

 either inorganic (mineral matter) or organic (living 

 matter). 



[We also include as organic matter all such dead 

 substances as are or have been formed in Nature only by 

 the agency of living plants and animals — such as starches, 

 sugars, fats, albumens, alkaloids, and such as coal and 

 other fossils]. 



Living organic matter differs broadly from the in- 

 organic matter of the Mineral kingdom in being, on the 

 one hand, liable to rapid dissolution and decay, but in being 

 able, on the other hand, to spontaneously renew and in- 

 crease itself out of the various inanimate substances with 

 which it is brought into relation. The cycles of compli- 

 cated physico-chemical changes that occur in the course 

 of this constant decay and renewal constitute Life. 



Living bodies are divided into (i) Animals which feel, 

 and can move spontaneously ; (2) Plants which do not. 

 Although we have no difficulty in distinguishing a highly 

 developed animal, e.g,, a vertebrate, from a highly devel- 

 oped plant, e.g,, a flowering tree, yet when we descend in 



