388 ARTICULATED ANIMALS. 



minute size, they extend to a considerable magnitude,,, 

 yet they appear to be little more than animated masses 

 of sea -water. If any one of these sea-jellies, or jelly- 

 fishes as they are often called (even the largest varieties 

 of them), is cast upon the shore, it is soon, by the in- 

 fluence of the sun, converted into a mere fibre no thicker 

 than a cobweb : an animal weighing seven or eight 

 pounds is very soon reduced to as many grains. There 

 are numerous kinds of these singular creatures, most of 

 which are remarkable for the powerful phosphorescent 

 light they emit. The heroes and the pulmoniyrade shine 

 with an intense white light many feet below the surface,, 

 whilst the Cesium Veneris, or girdle of Yenus, gliding" 

 rapidly along, presents, on the edge of the wave, an un- 

 dulating riband of flame of considerable length. There 

 can be no doubt that this arises from the emission of 

 phosphorescent matter of an unknown kind from the 

 bodies of these animals. 



The microscope has made us familiar with the mys- 

 teries of a minute creation which we should not other- 

 wise have comprehended. These creatures are found 

 inhabiting the waters and the land, and they exist in 

 the intestinal structure of plants and animals, preying 

 upon the nutritive juices which pass through their 

 systems. Although these beings are so exceedingly 

 small that even the most practised observer cannot 

 detect them with the naked eye, they are proved, by 

 careful examination under the microscope, to be in many 

 cases elaborately organized. Ehrenberg has discovered 

 in them filamentary nerves and nervous masses, and 

 even vessels appropriated to the circulation of fluids, 

 showing that they belong really to a high condition of 

 existence. 



Passing over many links in that curious chain which 

 appears to bind the animal kingdom into a complete 

 whole, we come to the articulata of Cuvier the homo- 

 gangliata of Owen. 



