16 LECTURE II. 



Kingdom ANIMALIA. 



Province Vertebrata. 



Class Mammalia. 



AVES. 



Reptilia. 



Pisces. 



Province Articulata. Province 3IoUusca. 

 Class Arachnida. Class Cephalopoda. 



Insecta. Gasteropoda. 



Crustacea. Pteropoda. 



Epizoa Lamellibranciiiata. 



Anellata. Brachiopoda. 



CiRRIPEDIA. TumCATA. 



Subprovince Radiaria. 

 Eciiinodermata, Bryozoa, Anthozoa, Acaleph^, Hydrozoa. 



Subprovince Entozoa. 



C(elelmintha, Turbellaria, Sterelmintha. 



Subprovince Infusoria. 



ROTIFERA, RhIZOPODA, PoLYGASTRIA.* 



LECTURE II. 



POLYGASTRIA. 



I PROPOSE first to invite your attention to a class of animals, the most 

 minute, and apparently the most insignificant of created beings. It 

 might almost seem needful to apologise for the design of trespassing 

 on your time and patience during one or two lectures with the Ana- 

 tomy and Physiology of creatures which are wholly invisible to the 

 naked eye. But we are too apt to let our judgments of the impor- 

 tance of objects be unduly influenced by first impressions, especially 

 by those of magnitude or the contrary, which deeper insight into 

 their true nature and value rectifies. 



The active atoms about to be described, for the knowledge of 

 whose very existence we are indebted to the microscope, are by no 

 means the least complex of organised beings ; those which will be the 

 subject of the present lecture belong to the higher division of organic 

 nature, and most of them manifest the distinctive properties of animals 

 in a striking and unequivocal manner. 



* A Glossary and explanation of the scientific terms will be added to the con- 

 cluding Lecture. 



