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some solid body. Then, by degrees,, it changes its form, so that from 

 a simple trochite with a, cylindrical, smooth, and uniform surface, it 

 becomes a tuberculous entrochite, and forms that part which is called 

 the base of the encrinite, basis radiorum encrini, destined to become* 

 as may be said, the stock of a numerous family : he forms five small 

 polypes, which fix themselves in the five grooves on its surface. These 

 five young polypes form others, and hence proceed the five branches 

 from the base; the number of these doubling by the new polypes 

 which push out from these ; and thus forming a body with ten, and 

 indeed at the end, with twenty rays, since the number of these po- 

 lypes are doubled a second time. At the sides of those rays, small 

 ossiculse also attach themselves, with which are formed the fingers, 

 and in this manner that which may be called the summit of the en- 

 ciinus is completed. It now wants only that part which we name the 

 stem of the encrinite ; this he conceives to have formed by the suc- 

 cessive apposition of new polypes, the first of which attaches itself to 

 the inferior part of the base, and the succeeding ones apply themselves 

 in the same manner to each other. 



Such is the opinion of Mons. Hofer. He, however, modestly offers 

 it merely as a conjecture subject to numerous difficulties, and thus we 

 nd it. This theory is composed of too many gratuitous suppositions. 

 The structure of the pelvis, &c. does not seem to be at all reconcil- 

 able with the idea of the arbitrary assemblage and apposition of po- 

 lypes. How is it possible that a trochite can transplant itself into 

 the various parts composing the pelvis, none of which parts bear any 

 resemblance to a trochite ? and nevertheless, according to this theory, 

 all these parts ought to have been formed by polypes of the same spe- 

 cies. How is it possible that one polype should form a body of a tri- 

 angular shape; another, of the same species, a hemispherical body; 

 and another again, a body of a cylindrical form ? If every joint has 

 its own separate polype, how happens it, that upon contracting at its 

 death, the whole body preserves so much regularity in its form ? If 



