82 THE VITAL FUNCTIONS. 



proceed in different directions from the cavity of 

 each stomach, dividing into many branches, and 

 being distributed over all the surrounding portions 

 of the flesh. These branches communicate with 

 similar channels proceeding from the neigh- 

 bouring stomachs : so that the food which has 

 been taken in by one of the mouths, contributes 

 to the general nourishment of the whole mass of 

 aggregated polypi. Cuvier discovered this struc- 

 ture in the Veret ilia, which belongs to this order of 

 polypi : he also found it in the Pennatula, and it 

 is probably similar in all the others. Fig. 246 

 represents three of the polypes of the Veretilla, 

 with their communicating vessels seen below. 

 The prevailing opinion among naturalists is, that 

 each polypus is an individual animal, associated 

 with the rest in a sort of republic, where the 

 labours of all are exerted for the common benefit 

 of the w hole society. But it is perhaps more con- 

 sonant with our ideas of the nature of vitality to 

 consider the extent of the distribution of nutritive 

 fluid in any organic system as the criterion of 

 the individuality of that system, a view which 

 would lead us to consider the entire polypus, or 

 mass composed of numerous polypes, as a single 

 individual animal ; for there is no more incon- 

 sistency in supposing that an individual animal 

 may possess any number of mouths, than that it 

 may be provided with a multitude of distinct 

 stomachs, as we shall presently find is actually 

 exemplified in many of the lower animals. 



