ON ANNELIDA. 51. 



cotoe better acquainted with them : are the annehda to be 

 raised to this rank because they possess a nutritive fluid of a 

 red colour, or because they have what, after all, may be con- 

 sidered but as the semblance of a circulation ? 



In reply to all this we may briefly say that, anatomically 

 and physiologically considered (and, after all, considerations of 

 this kind form the proper basis for zoological classification), the 

 annelida are more complicated in their organization than the 

 subsequent classes ; they form a more obvious link with the 

 classes immediately preceding, and (be it remembered) that 

 the objection against their being placed before the insects, if 

 it prove any thing, proves too much, for the same objection is 

 equally strong against the allocation of the mollusca in the 

 animal kingdom. But the fact is, that this objection, like 

 others of the same kind, is grounded upon the very untenable 

 position, that the works of nature proceed in a linear series, 

 a position which every true naturalist knows to be equally 

 contradictory to fact and reason. As for the assertion relative 

 to a circulating system, it will not bear examination. Analogy 

 would lead us to conclude that in every organized being cir- 

 culation must exist, and we are informed that its existence in 

 insects has of late been demonstrated by an English natural- 

 ist *. If so, we cannot have any doubt concerning it in the 

 annelida. 



M. de Lamarck followed the example of Baron Cuvier, and 

 placed this class between the cirropoda and the Crustacea. 



M. Dumeril, in his analytical Zoology, has not thought 

 proper to follow the views of MM. Cuvier and Lamarck. He 

 admits, however, with them, that the organization of the anne- 

 lida is more complicated than that of the insects, and that, 

 according to the natural scale of beings, they ought imme- 



* J. Bowerbank, Esq. 

 E -2 



