164 Mr. W. Clark on the recent Foraminifera. 
clined to think there are longitudinal vessels attached to the 
walls of the common canal to supply some of these functions, 
particularly that to administer, in conjunction with the capillary 
filaments, the oxygen. I do not believe there is a circulation be- 
yond that of flotation, arising from nervous contraction—I say 
nervous, because I shall presently enunciate the reasons for using 
this term. The respiration is effected by the very fine capillary 
filaments which issue from the foramina of such of these animals 
that have them, and which have been named “ pseudopodia,”’ or 
“nedes spurii ;” the filaments are only protruded from the last- 
formed chambers, which, until new ones are constructed, consti- 
tute the limits of the respiratory apparatus, the preceding ones 
being closed by the exudation of calcareous matter from the en- 
veloping membrane of each lobe, and though the punctures of 
former foramina are always seen, they are imperforate. The 
sustentation of these animals is undoubtedly the minute animal- 
cule received through the orifice into the common canal—the 
eight tentacula prove this—and are there digested, and the nutri- 
tive fluids enter probably by absorption into each mass of paren- 
chyme, the rejectamenta being discharged by the aperture. 
On the question of the nervous and muscular influences, which 
Lamarck only admits, as independent of sensation and interior 
sentiment, in his apathetic animals, amongst which are the Po- 
lypi, I must be allowed to make a few observations, to explain 
my reasons for not concurring in the views of that great natu- 
relist. Lamarck contends that sensation, or interior sentiment, 
does not exist in the lower animals, and that in them all move- 
ments arise from irritabilities excited by external impressions : I 
demur to this doctrine, and firmly believe that no created being 
can exist and exhibit evidences of vitality, by motion, without 
having implanted in it a certain degree of sensation or interior 
sentiment, by the influence of which the nervous and muscular 
powers are put in action. I grant that external causes may pro- 
duce motions and contractions, not I think by exciting an irrita- 
bility mdependent of sensation, as Lamarck terms it, but by the 
agents and after the manner I have just stated. 
It will be admitted that the sensations in the lower animals, 
which are the origin of the nervous and muscular influences, are 
of the most subdued qualities ; and though their points of de- 
parture, and the muscular supports dependent on them, may not 
be discernible by the most powerful instruments, still I believe 
that they exist, and produce those movements which are observed 
in the monad as well as in man. In the superior and larger ani- 
mals, we can perceive the causes of these influences and admit 
their existence, because they are apparent; and why not in the 
smallest, though they escape our vision? In the nearest fixed 
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