38 SUPPLEMENT ON 



The living creatures next in the scale, cannot be considered 

 much more perfect than the last. They are either inhabi- 

 tants of the water, or some constantly obscure and humid 

 medium, and are destitute of almost all the organs of the 

 senses. Their body, it is true, is divided into rings, which 

 facilitate locomotion, but it is unfurnished with those articu- 

 lated appendages which constitute limbs. Their nerves are 

 well distinguished and knotty, and from each of the knots or 

 ganglia, radiations of threads proceed towards the organs. 

 The sexes are united. These are the worms. 



The beings which belong to the two following classes, have 

 the trunck formed of distinct and articulated levers, and are 

 furnished with limbs of lateral appendages destined for 

 various motions, according to their mode of existence. Those 

 which live in the water have organs appropriate to that 

 medium, being provided with gills : these are the Crustacea. 

 In the others, the air penetrates into the various parts of the 

 body, through apertures conducting into aeriferous tubes, 

 named tracheae : these are the Insects. They are far more 

 animalized, if we may be allowed the phrase, that is, farther 

 removed from the vegetable existence, than any of the pre- 

 ceding classes. They are endowed with sight, hearing, smell, 

 taste, and touch. They enjoy all the various modes of 

 motion on the water, on the earth, and through the air. In 

 the organs destined for nutrition and generation, they are 

 fully on a par with animals of a more elevated order. 



It would be beside our purpose to trace these physiological 

 relations any higher. We have said sufficient to shew the ele- 

 vated rank which the insects should hold in the classification 

 of the animal kingdom. They should certainly be placed im- 

 mediately after the lowest of the vertebralia, over even which, 

 they may be said to possess more advantages than one. 



From the observations of the Baron it follows, that the 

 Crustacea, and the aranekla, diff'er from the insects proper. 



