THE COMMON ROTIFER. 35 



nervous ganglion or miniature brain, the gizzard is 

 a complicated piece of vital mechanism, such as we 

 have not met with before, and in various parts of 

 the transparent inside we see organs to which par- 

 ticular functions are assigned. 



It was at one time tliought that Rotifers were 

 hermaphrodite— uniting both sexes in.one body — but 

 tliat idea is now generally abandoned, for in many 

 species the males have been discovered, and the 

 fair sex may be gratified to hear that they are 

 without doubt the ''inferior animals." Their func- 

 tion is simply to assist the female in producing young, 

 and as this can be quickly accomplished, their lives 

 are short, and they are not supplied with the gizzard 

 and digestive apparatus, which their lady-loves pos- 

 sess. Much discussion has taken place as to the 

 rank which the Rotifers hold in the animal kingdom, 

 some naturalists thinking them relations of the crabs, 

 and others believing them to belong to the family 

 of the worms. Professor Huxley, who adopts the 

 latter view, which has the most friends, groups 

 the lower Annulosa together under the name of 

 Amndoida^ in which he includes Annelides^ or worms 

 of various kinds, the Ech niaodermata^ (or "spine 

 skins," among which are the star-fish and sea 

 hedgehogs,) and some other families. He considers 

 the Rotifers to be "the permanent forms of Echino- 

 derni larvae." This does not mean that they were 



