28 NATURAL ARRANGEMENT OF INSECTS. 



Rudolph! and Cuvier place the latter among the Paren- 

 chymaia, simply because the body has slight indications 

 of viscera ; but the distinction is too vague, and we are 

 by no means disposed to adopt the views of arrange- 

 ment proposed by these two eminent zoologists. Of all 

 the true Vermes, the Filaria is perhaps the most simple,, 

 and the genus Tcenia the most complicated. It has 

 been said by some writer, that the tape- worm should 

 more properly be considered a compound animal ; since, 

 if the true head be severed from the body, another would 

 spring up in its place : this may possibly be true, but it is 

 doubtful, and the fact does not touch the case in question ; 

 the remaining portion is still divided into segments or 

 flattened rings, and the animal, to all intents and purposes, 

 is annulose. That beings so simply constructed, are in- 

 timately related to the Annelides, may be inferred from 

 the fact that most authors include the Gordius, or hair- 

 worm, with the latter, and the Filaria, or Guinea worm, 

 with the former, or the Nemato'idea. This pest of hot 

 climates is said to be very common, particularly on the 

 African coast, where it insinuates itself under the skin of 

 the natives, and is reputed to acquire the length of more 

 than ten feet. In this manner it will continue to grow 

 for several years, sometimes causing such intense agony 

 as to produce convulsions in the unhappy sufferer. Its 

 body is of the thickness of a very small quill ; and when 

 it shows itself externally, the whole must be gently drawn 

 out, otherwise it breaks, and excruciating suffering is 

 produced. The most typical of all the true Vermes are 

 probably found in Cuvier's family of Tanio'idea, which 

 includes all those intestinal animals in which the head 

 is furnished with two or more suckers placed round its 

 middle, the centre of which is either marked by a pore, 

 or sometimes furnished with a little proboscis, which is 

 either naked or armed with spines. It has been ge- 

 nerally asserted, that the pores of the head are connected 

 by canals or nerves which creep along the margin of the 

 joints of the body : each of these joints has one or two 



