TUNGUSES TUNICATA. 



693 



bines also with phosphorus and sulphur. Accord- 

 ing to the trials of Gmelin, tungsten, even when in 

 the state of an acid, has no injurious effect on the 

 animal economy, when taken internally. 



TUNGUSES ; a numerous people in Siberia, of 

 Mantchoo origin (see Mandshures), dwelling in the 

 lower regions of the Yenisei, on the Tungusca, the 

 Lena and the Amour. Those heyond the Amour 

 are under the protection of China; those to the 

 north under that of Russia. Some of the Run- 

 guses are converted to Christianity, and practise 

 agriculture ; but the most are devoted to Shaman- 

 ism, and rove about with horses, reindeer, or dogs, 

 which draw their sledges and serve them for food, 

 rarely spending more than one or two nights in the 

 same place. Hunting, fishing, and in some cases 

 the breeding of cattle, are their employment. The 

 following cut represents the costume of the Tun- 



guses. They use no arms in the chase, except the 

 bow and arrow, in which they are so skilful that 

 they fear not to attack the fiercest and strongest 

 animals. They hunt chiefly for furs. They are 

 divided, according to the nature of the country 

 which they occupy, into the Tunguses of the 

 steppes and the Tunguses of the forests. The 

 former are shepherds, and own horses, neat cattle, 

 sheep, goats and camels. They are active and vi- 

 gorous, and are remarkable for the flatness of their 

 faces, and smallness of their eyes. They have no 

 money, and are unacquainted with the use of silver 

 and gold. They pay their tribute to the Russian 

 government in furs. Some of the small tribes 

 serve as light troops on the Mongolian frontiers, 

 and are exempt from tribute. All the Tunguses 

 have a common language, and, although so much 

 dispersed, are to be considered as forming one na- 

 tion. Their number is uncertain. 



TUNIC ; a garment worn by the Romans of both 

 sexes, under the toga and next to the skin. It was 

 generally of wool, of a white colour, and reaching 

 below the knee. Several tunics were worn one 

 above another. Only slaves and the lower class of 

 the people appeared abroad in the tunic ; but at 

 home, the Romans generally wore only the tunic, 

 which they girded up when going out, or when en- 

 gaged in business. The senators wore a tunic with a 

 broad stripe (davits') of purple sewed on the breast : 

 the equites had narrowstripes. Hence the terms lati- 

 claini and angusticlavii, applied to persons of these 

 orders. A sort of tunic worn by the women under 

 another made of linen, and having sleeves, was called 

 indiisium, and much resembled the modern shirt. 



TUNICATA. The situation which this class 

 of animals ought to occupy, has not yet been pro- 

 perly ascertained by naturalists. This arises from 

 the obscurity of their organization. They are 

 gelatinous, or coriaceous, biferous, bitunicated ani- 

 mals ; that is, provided with two coverings. They 

 exist either in a solitary condition or in groups, or 

 are frequently joined together in a common mass. 



Cuvier arranges these animals among his Mollus- 

 ca, in the class Acephala, and places them as the 

 second order of this class, with the title of Ace- 

 phalus animals destitute of shells ; while Lamarck 

 ranks them between the Echinodermata and Entozoa. 

 Latreille places them after Entozoa ; and Blainville 

 makes them the fourth order of his class Acepha- 

 lophora, with the name of Heterobranchiata. In 

 short, there appears to be, both among the verte- 

 bral and invertebral animals, more than one series 

 of forms and structure, which, either in the des- 

 cending or ascending scale of being, where the most 

 nearly allied groups, in point of organization, are 

 arranged in sequence, will always disconnect any 

 continued series of arrangement. 



The animals composing the class Tunicata have 

 an oblong irregular body, which appears as if it were 

 interiorly divided into many cavities. They are 

 destitute, of a head, and possess no distinct organs 

 of sensation, and no similar or symmetrical parts in 

 pairs. There have been found some filaments and 

 tubercles in their bodies, which are supposed to 

 form the nervous system. The body is composed 

 of muscular fibres, and a distinct system of blood 

 vessels ; the alimentary canal is open at both ends ; 

 and they have a mass of gemmae, or eggs, either 

 solitary or enveloped together in a common mem- 

 brane, which appears to form the ovaries. The 

 organ of respiration in this class is always situate 

 interiorly, and formed of two membranous recticu- 

 lar leaflets, sometimes constituting a kind of sac, 

 sometimes forming two bands of unequal length, 

 and united by one extremity. None of the species 

 possess retractile tubes for locomotion. All of 

 them have soft coriaceous bodies, which is generally 

 fixed, either by itself or in connexion with others 

 of the species, to extraneous substances. There 

 have not been yet discovered any traces of sexual 

 organs. 



We are assured by M. de Chamisso, that he has 

 witnessed a singular fact relative to the animals of 

 this class; it is, that the. individuals which have 

 thus issued from a multiplex ovary, are not pro- 

 vided with a similar one, but produce insulated 

 young ones of various forms, which have an ovary 

 like that which produced their parent ; so that there 

 is alternately a generation of a few insulated in- 

 dividuals, and another of numerous aggregate ones, 

 and that these two alternating generations do not 

 resemble each other. 



Muscular bando embrace the mantle, and con- 

 tract the body of these animals. They move by 

 taking in water at the posterior aperture, and forc- 

 ing it out through that near the mouth, so that the 

 animals are always propelled backwards, a circum- 

 stance which has led some naturalists into the error 

 of supposing that the posterior aperture was the 

 true mouth. They usually swim on their back. 

 The bronchiae form a single tube or riband, fur- 

 nished with regular vessels, placed obliquely in the 

 middle of the tubular cavity of the mantle, in such 

 a manner that it is constantly bathed by the water 

 as it traverses that cavity. The heart, viscera, ard 

 liver, are wound up near the mouth and towards 



