Class 1. 



CEPHALOPODES. 



331 



with numerous organs for seizing their prey, they destroy inraiy Fishes and Crusta- 

 ceous animals. 



Their flesh is eatahle. Their inky secretion is employed in painting, and from it 

 gome have asserted that the China ink of commerce is manufactured.* 



The Cephalopods comprise only one order f, which we divide into genera from the nature of 

 the sliell. Those which have no external shell formed, according to Linnaeus, the single genus 



Sepia, or Cuttle-fish,J 

 which we now subdivide as follows : — 



The Poulpes {Octojms, Lam.) ; the Poli/pus of the ancients. 

 These have only two small conical grains of a horny substance imbedded in their hack, one on each 

 side ; and their sac, banng no fms, rejiresents an oval purse. Their feet are eight in number, all nearly 

 of equal size, very large in proportion to the body, and united together at their insertions by a mem- 

 brane. The Octopus uses them equally in swimming, in creeping, and in seizing its prey. From their 

 length and strength they are formidable weapons, by means of which the prey is entangled and 

 caught ; and ihey have often been the destruction of swimmers. § The eyes are proportionally small, 

 and the skin can be made at Viill to contract over them so as to cover them completely. The ink bag 

 is embedded in the liver. The glands of the oviducts are small. 



Some (the Poh/pcs of Aristotle) have their suckers in two alternating' rows along [the oral margin] of each foot. 

 The common species (Sepia ociopodia, Linn.), with a minutely granulous skin, arms six times as long as the 

 body, and g:arnished with 120 pairs of suckers, infests our coasts in summer, where it destroys an immense 

 quantity of Crustacea. The seas of the tropics produce the Octopus gramdatus, Lam. (Scpla riigosa, Bosc) 

 Scb. iii. ii. 2, 3, known by its more decidedly granulated body, its arms only a little longer than itself, garnished 

 with fifty pairs of suckers. Some believe this to be the species which furnishes tlie China ink of commerce. 



Other Poulpes (the Elcdons of Aristotle) have only a single row of suckers down each foot. In the Mediterranean 

 there is a species remarkable for its musky smell: it is the Octopus moschatus, Lam.— J/«n. de la Sqc. d'JiUt, 

 Nat. in 4to, pi. 11 ; R<jndelct,a\lj. 



The Argonauts {Argonauta, Linn.)— 

 Are Poulpes with two rows of suckers: the pair effect nearest the back expand, at their extremities, 

 into a broad membrane. They have not the dorsal cartilaginous spicula of the common Octopus ; but 



we always find these Cuttles in a very thin, 

 regularly-grooved spiral shell, which, from the 

 disproportionate size of the last whorl, has 

 some resemblance to a canoe, the spire repre- 

 senting the poop. The animal uses it too as a 

 boat, for when the sea is calm, groups of them 

 have been seen navigating the surface in it, 

 employing six of their tentacula for oars, and 

 raising, it is said, the two with expanded ex- 

 tremities to serve the purposes of sails. If the 

 waves rise, or any danger threatens, the Argo- 

 naut withdrav.'s all its arms into the shell, con- 

 tracts itself there, and descends to the bottom. 

 Its body does not penetrate within the spire of 

 Fig. 151.— Argonauia thc shcll, aud it appears does not adhere to it, 



at least there is no muscular attachment, and this fact has led some authors to tliink that the Cuttle is 

 a parasite of the same nature as the Hermit-crab || ; but as it is always found in the same shell, as we 

 never find any other animal there, although it is very common, and naturally adapted for rising to the 



* However, M. Al. Ueinusat has found nothing in Chinese authors 

 to confirm this opinion, [which, the traa&lalor may add, is now known 

 to he erroneous 1. 



t Tlie discoveries of Mr. Owen have proved thc necessity of divjJinjj 

 thc diss into tico orders: — 1. Dibranchiata, witli two branchire, of 

 which all tlie juthcd Cuttle-fish are examples ; and, 2. Tistiiauraxchi- 

 ATA, wit'.i four branchije, as in NautUns, and as supposed to have been 

 in the rauhilocular-shelled fossil Cephalopodes.^Ko. 



J In Uiainviilc's system they form the older Crt/ptodibrauchiata. 



§ This fact needs confirmation ; and we need scarcely add, that tite 

 Stories of their sinking boats and ships arc entirely fabulous. — Kd 



]] Hence M. Rafincsque, and others following: him, Iiave ir.ade the 

 aniiual a penus under the name Ocythoe. [Certainly the opinion of its 

 being a parasite was, until recently, entertained by most naturalists; 

 but that advocated by Cuvier has been greatly strengthened, or rather 

 proved, by thc experiments o Mrs. Power. See the ^I'lg. of Saturnl 

 History, conducted by Mr. '-Jiarlesworth ; and the dissections and 

 arguments of Mr. Oivea, in tAc Proceedings mid Tratts/tctions of the 

 Zoological Socitity of Lojidoit, Tlie animal does not sail as here de- 

 scribed : the use of the cipaudcd arms is to retain the minial within 

 its shell.] 



