PLANARIA FLEXILIS. 15 



pletion. Probably the acute and intelligent 

 Muller, to whose researches naturalists are 

 so eminently indebted, did not escape that 

 liability to error which accidental appear- 

 ances are calculated to produce ; for what 

 are in some instances given by him as per- 

 manent characteristics, would most likely 

 have been obliterated with long intervals 

 of observation. 



The alimentary matter absorbed, is im- 

 mediately received into large viscera, and 

 distributed entirely throughout the body, 

 as is proved by the ramifications being co- 

 loured : and in this the nature of planariae 

 differs from that of the larger animals. It 

 is not the sensible parts of the food taken 

 into the stomach which are transmitted to 

 the extremities of the latter ; but, by some 

 mysterious process, their beneficial influ- 

 ence is universally disseminated. In pla- 

 narise, on the contrary, instead of a nutri- 

 tious principle only being diffused from the 

 intestines, or the organs analogous to those 

 connected with a stomach, portions, and 

 these in considerable quantities, of what 



