26 Marvels of Pond-Life. 



maphrodite — uniting both sexes in one body — but that 

 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 function 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 appa- 

 ratus, which their lady-loves possess. 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 

 Annuloida, in which he includes Annelides, or worms 

 of various kinds, the Echinodermata (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 Echinoderm larvae." This 

 does not mean that they were ever produced by 

 Echinoderms, and had their development checked, but 

 that they resemble them in organization, and illustrate 

 a general law, observable in animated beings, namely, 

 that the lower creatures are like the imperfect stages of 

 higher animals, and that all things are formed accord- 

 ing to general principles, and exhibit a uniformity of 

 plan. 



Mr. Gosse adopts a different view, and while admit- 

 ting a connection between the Rotifers and the worms, 



