266 FUNCTIONS AND INSTINCTS. 



of; and powers of locomotion, of which, at first 

 sight, they seem incapable. 



I might enlarge here on the admirable con- 

 trivance and variety observable in the hinge, as 

 it is called, by means of which the animals are 

 enabled to open and shut the valves of their 

 shells; upon the sculpture and colours that 

 distinguish many of them, particularly amongst 

 the unimusculars, but this chapter is already 

 too long, and enough has been said to prove 

 that they have in no respect been neglected 

 or overlooked by the Almighty Being who willed 

 their existence, and who is ever watchful over 

 the creatures of his hand, to provide them with 

 all things necessary for their being, consistently 

 with the ends he created them to serve. 



CHAPTER IX. 

 Functions and Instincts. Univalve Molluscans. 



THE Univalve shells of the Swedish naturalist, 

 a term adopted from Aristotle's Monothyra, are 

 next to be considered ; these, with the multivalve 

 Chitons, form the Gastropods, or shell-fish using 

 their belly for a leg, of Cuvier ; and with the 



