226 ON THE CLASSES OF THE 



the earlier naturalists gained them the appellation of Zoo- 

 fjhytes, we shall be under the necessity of acknowledging 

 that the line of separation between animal and vegetable 

 life is not so distinct as some philosophers would have us 

 suppose, and that in fact no accurately distinctive charac- 

 ter can be given, unless it be the presence of a nervous 

 system in the former. So thought Linnasus when he de- 

 scribed his Zoophyta as " Composila Aidmalcnla in bivio 

 Animalium Fegetabiliumque constituta, vera plant(Z, sed 

 systemate nerveo, sensus mottisque organo instructs." This 

 indeed has been denied by Lamarck, and termed a per- 

 fectly gratuitous and improbable supposition; because on 

 this view it would follow, as he thinks, that a fresh water 

 Polype must have all the organs of a perfect animal, and 

 consequently hears, sees, smells, &c. with every atom of 

 its body. But this conclusion, so absurd in itself, seems 

 to me to be rather absurdly arrived at ; since, if the study 

 of nature teaches us that where an organ ceases to exist 

 the faculty can no longer be found, there can be no rea- 

 son in the world to suppose that a Monas or Polype, 

 which appears absolutely an atom of jelly destitute of 

 any thing resembling an organ, should be gifted with 

 the above powers. Besides, in examining the construction 

 of those animals which enjoy their senses in the greatest 

 perfection, we find the nervous matter on the whole to be 

 ^ery homogeneous, whether it communicates sound, hght, 

 odour, taste, or touch, to the great sensorium ; so that 

 though the nerves form thus the medium of communica- 

 .tion from the organ of sense to the sensorium, they would 

 be useless without the former, which is so peculiarly 

 adapted for receiving impressions from external objects. 

 If an animal, therefore, could be supposed to exist de- 



