94 VERMES. 
It is not improbable that sufficient reasons may be found for re- 
moving some of the animals comprehended in this chapter from the place 
assigned to them. The subject is extremely obscure. Indeed, nothing 
can render it more obscure than the presence of equivocal, and the ab- 
sence of definite characters, whereon alone we can rear a system ; and to 
this may be added, the want of additional specimens, whereby to solve 
our doubts. 
From the preceding detail, however, the reader will discover how 
much remains to be done for reducing the Vermes to some useful arrange- 
ment ; although I might have augmented the number of animals described, 
it is unsatisfactory to dwell on what must be very imperfect. Nor do 1 
pretend to more than offer a few materials, to aid the undertaking of 
systematic naturalists. 
Herein I feel confidence, that much assistance will be derived from 
the drawings of the living specimens. 
No part of the flesh of animated bemgs seems to be exempt from 
parasite worms of many different kinds, whose presence is generally ex- 
tremely pernicious ; but it seems doubtful whether any but such larvee as 
undergo metamorphosis to other stages prey on the dead. 
