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of swimming feet into feathery plumes, which now wave around a 

 new aperture which serves as a mouth. It began life, I say, on 

 the same footing as a shrimp, but the latter passed it in the race, 

 and we can with difficulty recognise it as a member of the same 

 order. 



There does not seem room for doubting that the Hermit Crab 

 occupies a niche in Nature's temple not destined for him. At some 

 former period one might imagine that his indolent ancestors, in 

 order to protect themselves better, "hit ou the happy device of 

 utilizing the habitations of the molluscs which lay around them 

 in plenty, well built, and ready for immediate occupation " 

 (Drummond). Ceasing to care for its own protection, it has 

 gradually lost what was given it for that purpose, and its shell and 

 some important organs have altogether or well-nigh disappeared. 

 The Hermit Crabs are like men who have ceased to construct houses 

 using instead the caves in the rocks. "To the eye of Science," 

 says Mr. Drummond, " its sin is written in the plainest characters 

 on its own organization." 



But now, this degenerate member of crab society harbours in 

 his own tissues a still more degenerate crustacean, whose downfall 

 has been thorough and complete. The representation of Saccidina 

 (diagram) would not be taken, I venture to say, by any non- 

 naturalist as that of an animal at all. It is in fact a mere 

 membranous bag with no organs of sense whatever, full of eggs, 

 and having this bunch of tortuous organs, by means of which, as 

 with roots, it burrows into the tissues of its host. " It possesses 

 neither legs, nor eyes, nor mouth, nor throat, nor stomach ; 



it is a typical parasite. When we enquire into 

 the life history of this small creature, we unearth a career of 

 degenerency all but unparalleled in Nature " (Drummond). For it 

 begins life, as we have said, as a NaupHus, in a form little below 

 that of its host, but at a certain stage in its history it shrinks from 

 the struggle of life, and forces others to provide for it. 



There are certain people who sometimes talk glibly of what 

 they call the Laws and arrangements of Nature, and say that we 

 cannot do better than imitate them — people who say society ought 

 to be constituted like that of bees or ants — people who would 

 degrade the dearest relations of life to such as exist among the 

 lower animals. I wonder if they are conscious of the results 

 which would ensue, if their ideas were consistently acted upon. 

 There is never a crime that man committed, which might not 

 be justified by examples from nature. Theft, robbery, slavery, 

 war, murder — we can see them all going on around us daily in the 

 " arrangements " of the animal kingdom. The human parasite 

 might readily justify his unjustifiable meanness, if we allowed him 



