WA4 ANIMALS ‘KILLED Iv. 
motionlefs, it is becaufe no food is taken, and 
this commonly happens when the animals, being 
in an unfuitable fituation, languifh and die; which 
is fometimes the cafe with thofe revived in fand 
kept in clofe veffels. ‘Then I have feen, that al- 
though the fand {warmed with wheel animals dur- 
ing the firft days, the number decreafed, and thus 
continued to fuch a degree, that in twelve or fif- 
teen days the whole were dead. They appeared 
lifelefs and disfigured at the bottom of the veffels, 
and many were even reduced to nothing. During 
this period of difeafe, the vortex was feldom 
made; but it is almoft always formed when we 
find them in fewers, in pits or holes of rain 
water (1). 
It is not an imaginary idea that this particle is 
an organ formed for the receptacle of the aliment, 
and to tranfmit it to the ftomach. It is founded, 
1. On obferving in my wheel animals a kind of 
little canal united to it, fig. 3. B. 5. E. which, 
rifing towards the head, greatly refembles an cefo- 
phagus. 2. This part is furely appropriated for 
that purpofe in other aquatic animals, bearing 
great 
(1) * The heart of the wheel animal, which both Sco- 
‘ poli and Spallanzani affirm is at reft when its filaments — 
¢ donot move, l have fometimes feen in motion. It is 
‘rather a mufcle for deglutition.? Muller, Anim. Infuf, | 
pe 297.-—T. 
