364 MANUAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



constituent classes must vary in number, for as 

 further or more accurate research indicates the 

 separate existence of this system, such animals 

 become entitled to occupy a more advanced position. 

 In the Acrites, animal life exhibits itself in its most 

 primitive type, and shews clearly that corporeal 

 existence does not depend on an assemblage of im- 

 portant viscera, or the possession of numerous nerves 

 and blood-vessels, but that organized matter can 

 live, move, and have being in a most humble and 

 rudimentary form, descending ultimately to a vivified 

 molecule, or a mere microscopic cell endowed with 

 vitality. The majority of the members of this Sub- 

 kingdom, though often minute, and likely to escape 

 the notice of any but a vigilant observer of nature, 

 are not on that account the less interesting in their 

 developement, habits, or destiny; nor do they the 

 less exhibit the wondrous power and skill of their 

 omnipotent Creator. Destitute of organs of special 

 sense, endowed most feebly even with sensation, 

 shewing hardly any evidence of being possessed of 

 nervous matter, the whole aim and object of their 

 short-spanned lives appears, to our limited minds, 

 to be self-subsistence and the propagation of their 

 race. In the simplest of the class there are scarcely 

 any signs of a digestive cavity, while others more 

 in advance, and more adapted for enjoying the good 

 things of this life, seem to be all stomach and 

 nothing else. 



Their number may be truly said to be "Legion/' 

 for they are countless. They are found alike inhabit- 



