29G AMERICAN JOURNAL 



break open the calcareous covering of the Crustacea and mol- 

 lusca on which he feeds? Not, assuredly, with his sucking 

 apparatus. You will probably have the kindness to lend him 

 a nut-cracker! 



Further, we find the following delightful remarks, relating 

 to the functions of nutrition of that animal: "The Pieuvre 

 has but one opening in the centre of his radiae. Is this only 

 hiatus the anus? Is it the mouth? It is both. The same 

 opening performs both functions. It is entrance and outlet." 

 Further still we read: "Another second, and his mouth-anus 

 was being applied to Gilliatt's chest. Gilliatt bleeding on the 

 side, and having both arms entangled, was a dead man." . . . 

 What are you about, M. Victor Hugo? You give here the 

 Poulp an organization as dirty as it is incorrect. All natu- 

 ralists know very well that cephalopods have an anal orifice 

 quite distinct from the buccal one, and which opens into the 

 locomotive tube. It would have been easj?- for you to ascer- 

 tain the fact, if, instead of consulting the ridiculous fables of 

 Montfort, you had read some good work of one of the nume- 

 rous naturalists who have written scientifically on the cepha- 

 lopods, such as Cuvier, D'Orbigny, Verany or Owen, for ex- 

 ample. We must again, then, protest as energetically as at 

 first, in the name of all those who understand aught about 

 Natural Sciences. We would have a great many more such 

 assertions to correct in this strange chapter, but it would lead 

 us too far. Still the beotians of literature will not fail to 

 praise it beyond measure, as well as the finest parts of the 

 work. It is then, we believe, the duty of those who have, al- 

 though unassumingly, yet conscientiously, devoted their lives 

 to the study of science, to point out and rectify such gross er- 

 rors, much more dangerous when they emanate from so emi- 

 nent a writer as M. Victor Hugo, than if they came from an 

 obscure author. We must add, that, although this unlucky 

 chapter is full of every kind of enormities, and of facts com- 

 pletely false as to science, the paper of Paris which has the 

 largest circulation, although not exactly the most intelligent, 

 has seized with eagerness this opportunity (with that scent 

 which characterizes it) to chose it precisely as a specimen of 

 the work, and to transcribe it at full length, with the warmest 

 eulogies. 



We see thereby that popular instruction is in good hands, 

 and in a fair track as regarding Natural Sciences. M. Michelet, 

 also a confused literateur in regard to science, had already drawn 

 quite an amusing fanciful portrait of the Poulp; but, after 

 that sketched by M. Victor Hugo, nothing more can be added. 

 It is easy enough to make it more accurate; but to frame it 

 more fantastically, would be almost an impossibility. 



