282 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



opposition to some of those principles which he had 

 himself most strenuously advocated. The truth is, 

 that in the presence of the great variability of the 

 lower animals, even the greatest systematisers are 

 forced to yield to evidence, and to renounce those 

 arrangements which have been arbitrarily drawn up, 

 and under which they endeavour to comprise the 

 whole of the animal creation. The remarkable 

 external characteristics of the Branchellion attracted 

 the attention of anatomists, who were impressed with 

 the conviction that it would be found to possess an 

 equally singular internal organisation. Unfortu- 

 nately, however, the Branchellion is not of common 

 occurrence ; indeed it is but rarely met with even in 

 those places where the Torpedo is taken by hundreds, 

 and yet it is impossible to make any accurate observa- 

 tions on the animal except in its living state. I knew 

 from my own personal experience that no available 

 results could be obtained from specimens preserved 

 in spirits, for the alcohol hardens the animal, and 

 confounds all its organs and tissues. I was not then 

 acquainted with the works which had been recently 

 published in Germany on the subject, and there 

 remained therefore many questions for me to deter- 

 mine.* For instance, I was anxious to ascertain what 



* F. Leydig, a distinguished naturalist, published, some time 

 before my departure for La Rochelle, a very interesting notice of the 

 Branchellion, which he had observed in the living state at Genoa. 

 The results at which we both arrived agree in most points, although 

 they differ on several. These differences are no doubt in part to 

 be ascribed to the more favourable circumstances in which I was 

 able to examine these animals, and perhaps also in part due to 

 our having observed different species. Some details given by 



