BARNACLES 



223 



shall see what an exquisite piece of mechanism it is. The 

 little hand consists of twenty-four long fingers, of the most 

 delicate tenuity, each composed of a great number of joints, 

 and much resembling in this respect the antennae of a 

 Beetle. These fingers surround the mouth, which is placed 

 at the bottom of the sort of imperfect funnel formed by 

 their divergence. They resolve themselves into six pairs of 

 arms, for each one is branched from 

 the basal joint, dividing into two 

 equal and similar portions. Those 

 nearest the mouth are the shortest, 

 and each pair increases regularly in 

 length to the most distant, which 

 are the central pair when the hand 

 is extended. Each division of each 

 of this longest and most extensile 

 pair comprises, in the specimen be- 

 fore us, thirty-two joints, while the 

 shortest consists of about ten, the 

 intermediate ones being in propor 

 tion; so that the whole apparatus 

 includes nearly five hundred distinct articulations, a won 

 derful provision for flexibility, seeing that every joint is 

 worked by its own proper system of muscles. 



Moreover, every separate joint is furnished with its 

 own system of spinous hairs, which are doubtless delicate 

 organs of touch, since it has been established that the 

 hairs with which the shelly coats of Crustacea are studded 

 pass through the substance of the latter, and communicate 

 with a pulpy mass, richly supplied with nerves, which 

 lines the shell. 1 These hairs project at a more or less 



HAND OF BARNACLE. 



( Proc. Koyal Society," ix. 216. 



