S8 1 ItitcUigence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



to avail liimself oFall new discoveries, in order to mark as much as 

 possible the extent and limits of tlie analogies that exist among 

 animals. At present he is to attend especially to the Cephalopoda. 

 a subject which he remarked had been happily ciiosen by his learned 

 colleague, since there is none that can better sliow what truth there 

 may be in the principles under discussion, and how far they are 

 vague and exaggerated. 



M. Cuvier here enters into tlie details of the discussion of the 

 point of view set forth by MM. Lanrencet and Meyraux, a point 

 of view that consists in considering tlie Molkisca as species of ver- 

 tebrated animals, bent backwards at the navel, so that the two por- 

 tions of the spine of the back come in contact. To appreciate the 

 justice of this view, M. Cuvier took, in the fiist ))lace, a vertebrated 

 animal, which he bent back, as was required, with the pelvis towards 

 tlie nape of the neck, and removed all the integuments of one side, 

 in order to show the interior parts well in situ, fie then took a 

 cuttle-fish, placed it by the side of the vertebrated animal, and ex- 

 amined the respective situation of the parts. 



Passing in review successively the respective position of the head 

 and of the different parts which comjwse it, the large vessels, and 

 the organs of generation, the author concludes, from a very detailed 

 comparative examination of these parts, that the analogy which the 

 authors of the Memoir had thought that they observed, is illusory 

 nearly throughout. 



He even thinks that it would be more easy to establish some 

 analogy of situation, bj^ supposing the animal to be bent in a direc- 

 tion the reverse of that of the hy[)othe?is ; then, indeed, the brain, 

 the liver, oesophagus, stomachs, and the great artery, would remain 

 in the same respective position as in vertebrated animals; but the 

 hearts, veins, branchiae, and organs of generation, would still be dif- 

 ferently placed, and the problem would not be solved ; and further 

 still, M. Cuvier thinks he may affirm that it is impossible that 

 it ever should be, entirely. Those important organs, the heart 

 and the branchiae, alwaj's in connection with the oesophagus in 

 vertebrated animals, are here at a great distance from it, and with- 

 out any connection; and from this circumstance necessarily results 

 an entirely different direction in the vessels. Now since the plan 

 of an animal essentially depends upon the distribution of the vessels 

 which convey nutrition and life to its organs, it may, u priori, be 

 asserted that the identity of plan of the Cephalopoda and the Ver- 

 tebrata will never be demonstrated except in a very partial manner. 



Another generating element of the plan of animals, perhaps still 

 more essential than their vessels, is their nervous system. But how 

 can it be said that there is here the least analogy ? The brain is 

 inclosed in a cavity of the cartilaginous ring, which serves as a base 

 to the tenracula. It furnishes in front the nerves of the buccal 

 mass (cheek j)ouches), then an expansion which occupies the side 

 of the cartilaginous ring, and supplies the nerves of the great tcnta- 

 cula, in order to produce the enormous ganglion of the eye ; an- 

 other branch swells out a little further on into a ganglion, whence 



the 



