76 



whos,e composition is perfectly uniform. The 'best mi- 

 croscopes only discover in them an infinite number of 

 small grains, which are tinged vvilh the nourishment the 

 animal feeds upon. 



Can these grains be so many utricles? Can they re- 

 ceive the aliment by immediate conduits, prepare it 

 and transmit it to other vessels appointed to convey it 

 into the channels of circulation! Is there a circulation 

 in the polypus ? 



The different kinds of vessels which the first conjec- 

 ture supposes, and which their fineness or transparency 

 may render invisible to us, must be lodged in the thick 

 part of the texture of the polypus. We are induced to 

 think so from the experiment of turning it inside out, 

 which being effected, does not cause any change in the 

 vital functions. 



,But of what service can that property be to. the .poly- 

 pus, which it cannot make use of without the assistance 

 of man? I mean, the operation of turning, the inside 

 outwards. 



I answer, that this property is one of the conse- 

 quences of an organization peculiarly necessary to the 

 polypus. The Author of nature never intended to 

 create an animal capable of being turned as we do a 

 glove ; but he designed to form an animal whose ..prin- 

 cipal viscera were lodged in the thickest part of the 

 skin, and which had power, jn a veilain degree to escape 

 various accidents to which the nature of its life unavoid- 

 ably exposed it. Now, what naturally follows from 

 this organization is the being enabled to endure this 

 shifting without occasioning its death. 



13. Those animals whose structure appears less 

 simple than that of the polypus, multiply like him 

 by sl^js. 



These worms have a stomach, intestines, heart, ar- 

 teries, veins, lungs, and organs of generation. If we 



