LECTURE XI. 161 



any uncertainty that might still remain. By good 

 fortune he succeeded in the attempt, and brought 

 back a middle-sized specimen of the shell with the 

 animal in it. This I examined, and had the fur- 

 ther satisfaction to find that it exactly coincided 

 with all that had been said by those who believed 

 it to be the real inhabitant-animal of the shell. The 

 two membranes were still wider in proportion than 

 in any figure yet represented; and on each side the 

 body was a very numerous groupe of small eggs. 

 These I examined in order to find whether the em- 

 bryo-animal with its shelly covering existed in the 

 egg, which would at once have been an experimen- 

 tum crucis on the subject; but the eggs were not 

 sufficiently advanced to shew this particular. Since 

 that time however specimens of the animal in its 

 shell have been brought to the French National 

 Museum, and on an examination of the eggs in 

 these specimens, it appears that the embryo-ani- 

 mal is furnished, like snails and other shell animals, 

 with the shell, even while yet in the egg ; so that 

 no farther doubt now remains of the Cuttle-shaped 

 animal inhabiting the Paper Nautilus being the 

 true and natural inmate of the shell. I have 

 been the more particular on this subject, since 

 LECT. u. M 



