THE COASTS OP SICILY. 53 



as complicated, if not more so, in insects, as in the 

 largest animals, such as the elephant ; and M. Blan- 

 chard, by adding many important facts to those 

 which had been discovered by his predecessors, has 

 further confirmed this general result. 



Encouraged by his first success, M. Blanchard 

 extended his investigations on the nervous system to 

 those singular beings, whose existence and mode of 



O G ^ 



propagation continued to within a few months of the 

 present time (1854) to constitute one of the most 

 curious problems of zoology.* We here refer to the 

 Helminthes s or intestinal worms animals which are 

 sometimes developed in the very midst of the living 

 tissues, in the muscular substance, in the brain, and 

 in the ball of the eye, and therefore in parts which 

 to all appearance are the best protected from any 

 external influences. Lamarck and Cuvier almost 

 absolutely denied them the possession of a nervous 

 system. Many naturalists shared in this opinion, 

 and if any isolated observation appeared to justify 



accordingly resolved to give a history of the leading groups, by taking 

 as a terra of comparison one of the principal species, -whose anatomy 

 had been pursued to its utmost limits. It was thus that he chose 

 the Cockchafer as the type of articulate animals, and Cuvier con- 

 sidered this work as the only one which could be compared with 

 that of Lyonnet. In making his delicate preparations, M. Strauss- 

 Durckheim had recourse to several ingenious inventions, and 

 amongst others we owe to him the discovery of a very simple 

 method of making extremely fine injection tubes. His labours 

 have unhappily been suspended by premature infirmity, for, like 

 Geoffroy and Savigny he has almost entirely lost his sight. 



* I have elsewhere stated (see Vol. I. p. 345), that the researches 

 of Van Beneden and Kuchenmeister have almost entirely solved 

 the problem of the reproduction of the intestinal worms. 

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