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CHAPTER VI. 

 Functions and Instincts. Radiaries. 



IT happens not seldom to the student of the 

 works of creation, when he is endeavouring to 

 thread the labyrinth of forms in any of the three 

 kingdoms of nature, and has arrived at any given 

 point, to feel doubtful which course to pursue. 

 The road divides, perhaps, into two branches, 

 which both promise to lead him right. At the 

 very outset of the animal kingdom, as we have 

 seen, there was some uncertainty, whether we 

 should begin by the Infusories or Polypes, and 

 now the Tunicaries, or Ascidians as some call 

 them, at the first blush seem more closely con- 

 nected with the Polypes, than the Radiaries, 

 which Lamarck has placed next to them ; but 

 when we consider that the organization is much 

 more advanced in the former than in the latter, 

 not only in the organs of digestion, but in those 

 of sensation, respiration, and circulation, we feel 

 satisfied that the latter, where the object is to 

 ascend, should first be considered. I shall, there- 

 fore, now give some account of the Radiaries. 



The animals forming this class receive this 

 appellation, because they exhibit a disposition 

 to form rnys, both in their internal and external 



