RADIARIES. 213 



The mouth of this animal is under its body, 

 a situation far from favourable, according to 

 appearance, for the mastication or bruising of 

 its food : if its jaws moved vertically, like ours 

 or the mandibles of a bird ; or if they moved 

 horizontally like those of insects, it would have 

 been attended with no small trouble to an animal 

 whose mouth was underneath, but its five pyra- 

 midal jaws with the points of the teeth in the 

 centre, admit an action more accordant with the 

 situation of the mouth. By means of its nume- 

 rous muscles it can impart a variety of action 

 to the mass and individual pieces that form 

 its oral apparatus, so as to accommodate it to 

 circumstances, a power not possessed by the 

 higher animals. In those Echinidans, whose 

 mouth is in the margin of the anterior part of 

 the shell, 1 no such powerful apparatus is obser- 

 vable, its situation being in front of the animal, 

 it is not as it were under restraint, it has less 

 occasion for the aid either of tentacles in its 

 vicinity, or of a powerful apparatus of masti- 

 cating organs. 



By furnishing these animals with a set of 

 peculiar organs to act the part of hands as well 

 as feet, we have another instance of the care of 

 Divine Providence to adapt every creature to the 

 situation and circumstances in which it is 

 placed. The legs and arms of the higher ani- 



Ananchites, Spatanyus, fyc. 



