66 CLASSIFICATION AND CREATION. 



animals, one ceases to wonder that Nature should 

 make large provision against the many chances 

 of destruction that beset them, and one may 

 readily believe, that, of the eight millions of eggs 

 born from one individual, a comparatively small 

 number survive. 



The next class in the type of Articulates is 

 that of Crustacea, including Lobsters, Crabs, and 

 Shrimps. It may seem at first that nothing can 

 be more unlike a Worm than a Lobster ; but 

 a comparison of the class-characters shows that 

 the same general plan controls the organization 

 in both. The body of the Lobster is divided into 

 a succession of joints or rings, like that of the 

 Worm ; and the fact that the front rings in the 

 Lobster are soldered together, so as to make a 

 stiff front region of the body, enclosing the head 

 and chest, while only the hind rings remain 

 movable, thus forming a flexible tail, does not 

 alter in the least the general structure, which 

 consists in both of a body built of articulated 

 rings. The nervous swellings, which were even- 

 ly distributed through the whole body in the 

 Worm, are more concentrated here, in accord- 

 ance with the prevalent combination of the rings 

 in two distinct regions of the body, the larger 

 ones corresponding to the more important or- 

 gans ; but their relation to the rest of the organ- 

 ization, and their connection by nervous threads 



