470 .THE OCEAN WORLD. 



body itself is contained in a thin, white, and fragile univalve shell, 

 which is oval, flattened on the exterior, but rolled up in a spiral in 

 the interior, the last turn of the shell being so large as to give it 

 something of the form of an elegantly-shaped shallop. Singularly 

 enough, the body of the animal does not penetrate to the bottom of 

 the shell, nor is it attached to it by any muscular ligament ; nor is 

 the shell moulded exactly upon it, as is the case with most other 

 testaceans. 



What does all this imply ? Is the Argonaut a parasite ? a fraudu- 

 lent disinheritor ? a vile assassin, who, having surprised and killed 

 the legitimate proprietor of the shell, has installed itself in its place, 

 and in the proper house of its victim ? Such crimes are not without 

 example in the natural history of animals witness the proceedings 

 of the curious hermit crab, whose proceedings we shall glance at in 

 a future chapter. The parasitic character of the Nautilus was long 

 conceded by naturalists ; but recent facts have corrected this opinion. 

 We have collected their shells, of all dimensions and of all ages, 

 inhabited always by the same animal, whose size is always propor- 

 tioned to the volume of the shell. More than that, it is now known 

 that in the egg of the Nautilus the rudiments of the shell exist. 

 M. Chenu tells us, that under the microscope Professor Duvernoy 

 discovered a distinct shell contained in the embryo. Sir Everard 

 Home asserts the contrary ; and no opportunity presented itself for 

 the complete solution of the question, until Poli was placed by the 

 King of Naples in a position to solve it. The piscina of Portici was 

 placed at his disposal. He witnessed the curious mechanism by 

 which the egg is expelled from the uterus, having a shell, and satisfied 

 himself, by following their development day by day, that the si jell 

 existed in the embryo, and grew with the animal. He satisfied 

 himself also that the opinion enunciated by Aristotle, that at no point 

 did the animal adhere to the shell, was perfectly true. 



Finally, in the curious series of experiments carried on by Madame 

 Power, in the port of Messina, the fragments of the frail bark of the 

 mollusc, which were broken off in taking it, were restored in a few 

 days, having been reproduced. It is, therefore, quite demonstrated 

 that the Nautilus, like other testaceous molluscs, itself secretes and 

 constructs its shell its diaphanous skiff. The reader, however, must 

 not flatter himself that he can witness with his own eyes from the 



