ON CEPHALOPODA. 289 
and Atlantic, where they constitute a portion of the aliment 
of the poor. The ancients likewise ate of them, according to 
Atheneus. 
Nevertheless these animals are but little sought after now 
by fishers, but for their bone, which has been called sepzosta- 
rium, and their ink. 
The first, or the bone of the sepia, is employed to be put in 
the cages of those little granivorous birds which are reared in 
a domestic state, probably to replace the little grains of silex, 
or lime, which they are in the habit of swallowing when at li- 
berty, or to wear the extremity of their bill, which without that 
might grow to an injuriouslength. But more frequently it enters 
into the composition of those decorating powders under the 
name of coral powder, which is used for the purpose of clean- 
ing teeth, and removing the ealcareo-animal substance called 
tartar, which is deposited on their surface during the night. 
As to the ink of this animal, it composes almost by itself 
alone that colour so agreeable from the equality of its tone, 
its warmth, and even its tint, called sep¢a. But it is more 
than probable, notwithstanding all that has been said on the- 
subject, that it does not enter into the composition of the 
China-ink, or as we more generally call it, Indian-ink, which, 
as it is now understood, is formed of lamp-black, extremely 
divided, and mixed with a certain quantity of gum, and aro- 
matized with some substance with which we are not precisely 
acquainted. 
The genus OcToPUS closely approximates to sepia, and, 
indeed, was considered but as one of its species by Linnzus ; 
the ancients gave it the name of polypus, a name now exclu- 
sively consecrated to a tribe of the radiata. 
From the organization of the octopi it is easy to perceive that 
they are animals whose sensations must be pretty nearly similar 
to those of others of this class, but their mode of locomotion 
differs from that of the majority; in fact, they do not swim 
VOL. XII. U 
