102 On Parasitic Animals. 



less similar to those which are observed upon the arins of poly- 

 pi, or at the posterior extremity of the body of leeches. Some 

 naturalists have derived from the number of these organs the 

 names which they have given to the animals bearing them ; but, 

 as if they had taken them for mouths, they have made up the 

 names from numerical titles, and the word stoma: thus, dis- 

 toma^ hexastoma, polystoma. M. Cuvier himself, having disco- 

 vei'ed, twenty-seven years ago, in the Mediterranean, a species of 

 this family, which has three cups, conformed with the establish- 

 ed custom, and named it Tristoma. 



It is now well known, that the organs in question are not 

 more subservient to the imbibition of food than those of simi- 

 lar form which the polypi and leeches possess. The animal 

 employs them only for fixing itself, and, with a little attention, 

 the true mouth is always found, which is single, and very 

 different from the cups. 



The expressions distoma and polt/stama are therefore impro- 

 per ; and the great inconveniences resulting to natural history 

 from the perpetual changes in names, alone induce M. Cuvier 

 to prefer them to those of hexacotyles, and the others which M. 

 de Blainville has proposed, and which more correctly represent 

 the organization which they ought to designate. 



Be this as it may, the animal presented to the Academy by 

 M. de Cuvier belongs to the group of parasites, but is infinitely 

 more polystomatous or polycotylous than any hitherto described. 

 Most of these animals are small, several of them microscopic ; 

 but this is four, five, or six inches in length. It has upwards of a 

 hundred cups, and if, in naming it, the same method is adopted 

 as with reference to the others, it should be called hecaiostoma^ 

 or hecatocotyles. 



What adds more to the singularity of its conformation, is the 

 singularity of the abode which it has chosen, or which has been 

 assigned to it by Nature. It lives in the abdominal cavity, or even 

 in the substance of the flesh of the polypus, the only animal 

 - which surpasses it in the number of cups with which it is fur- 

 nished. 



M. Cuvier remarks how favourable this circumstance is to 

 the metaphysicians who amuse themselves with composing the 

 intestinal worms all of a piece with the elements furnished by 



