THE COASTS OF SICILY. 55 



constitutes another exceptional character in these al- 

 ready remarkable worms. All these facts, illustrated 

 and confirmed by extremely delicate preparations, 

 were submitted to the most competent judges, and 

 the consequences deduced from them are highly im- 

 portant. They have led us to recognise the fact that 

 very different animals have hitherto been confounded 

 under one common denomination, and they have 

 enabled us to appreciate the relations which connect 

 these different types with already established groups, 

 and finally they have removed an extremely nume- 

 rous class from the animals which we regard as al- 

 together devoid of a nervous system. 



This is a very important result. The nervous 

 system, says the illustrious author of the Regne 

 Animal, represents, so to speak, the whole animal. 

 We are far from accepting this doctrine uncondition- 

 ally, but at the same time we cannot deny extreme 

 importance to that system, which appears in the 

 highest living beings to distribute life to every part 

 of the organism.* The absence of this system is in 



and lead an independent life as soon as their organisation is com- 

 pleted. We ought to add that these ideas, startling as they may 

 appear, very probably express the truth. 



* It is well known that in order to remove from a limb every 

 trace of sensibility and motion, it is sufficient to cut, or simply to 

 compress, the nerve which supplies it. The limb itself, however, 

 does not die, inasmuch as the circulation and the nutrition are 

 carried on very nearly in the same way as before the operation, and 

 we might, therefore, be led to believe that the words of the text 

 convey a very great exaggeration, but it is well known that there 

 exist in the superior animals, and even amongst a certain number 

 E 4 



