MEMOIR OP PALLAS. 31 



length on the Anomiw^ Serpulce^ the Nereides and 

 Aphroditoe^ the Echiurew^ Lumhrici, and Hydatids. 

 Instead, however, of passing any opinion of our own, 

 we will here adduce the sentiments of Cuvier: — • 

 " What would have excited the liveliest astonish- 

 ment, if the public at the time had been in a condi- 

 tion to appreciate it, was the sudden light which 

 Pallas threw on those classes of the animal economy 

 which were least known, and which had long been 

 huddled together under the common appellation of 

 worms. Not permitting himself to be imposed upon 

 by the errors of Linnaeus, any more than by those 

 of Buffon, he demonstrated that the presence or 

 absence of a shell could not furnish a satisfactory 

 basis for their arrangement, and that the whole ana- 

 logy of their structure should be regarded ; that in 

 this respect the ascidia are properly analogous to 

 • bivalve shells, * * *^ that the univalves are more 

 nearly connected with snails, and that the Aphro- 

 ditce^ whose anatomical structure he beautifully 

 elucidated, should be approximated to the nereides, 

 serpulse, and other articulated worms, whether they 

 have shells or not. Assuredly," he continues, " the 

 naturalist whose glance was so piercing, could have 

 dispelled the chaos which enveloped those inverte- 

 bral animals, if he had continued to prosecute hij 

 investigations; but at the time he published his 

 views, they were not quite matured. Those errors 

 which a little trouble would have speedily corrected, 

 probably contributed to delay a necessary revolution 

 of opinion till a subsequent period; and we here 



