I STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY OF ANIMALS 43 



are, to a greater or less extent, different from the transverse or 

 honzouta! secondary axes, and the body of an animal having such 

 a disposition of the parts is divisible into two equal lateral halves 

 ovhcnnsomfs b}- a median vertical plane passing through the 

 primary axis. This is the bilateral symmetry observable in all but 

 a few types of animals. 



Sometimes the bilaterally symmetrical animal is unsegmented • 

 sometimes it is divided into a series of segments or metameres. 

 A distinct head may be present or absent. The head end or 

 anterior end is that which, save in exceptional cases, is directed 

 forwards in locomotion. It is towards this end that the organs of 

 special sense are situated, as well as the opening of the mouth and 

 the organs for the prehension and mastication of food. A head is 

 developed when the anterior part bearing these structures is 

 marked off externally from the rest. In segmented animals the 

 head consists of a number of segments amalgamated together, and 

 it contains the brain or the principal central ganglia of the nervous 

 system. 



8. The Primary Subdivisions or Phyla of the Animal 



Kingdom. 



The various systems of organ) — digestive, circulatory, nervous, 

 excretory, etc. — present under one form or another in all the higher 

 groups of animals, are variously arranged and occupy various 

 relative positions in different cases, producing a number of widely 

 different plans of animal structure. According as their structure 

 conforms to one or another of these great plans, animals are referred 

 to one or another of the corresponding great divisions or phyla of 

 the animal kingdom. That animals do present widel}'' differing 

 plans of structure is a matter of common knowledge. We have 

 only to compare the true Fish, such as Cod, Haddock, etc., in a fish- 

 monger's shop with the Lobsters and the Oysters, to recognise the 

 general nature of such a distinction. The first-named are charac- 

 terised by the possession of a backbone and skull, with a brain and 

 spinal cord, and of two pairs of limbs (the paired fins) ; thej' belong 

 to the great vertebrate or backboned group — the division Vertc- 

 Irata of the, phylum Chordata. The Lobsters, on the other hand, in 

 which these special vertebrate structures are absent, possess a body 

 which is enclosed in a hard jointed case, and a number of pairs of 

 limbs also enclosed in hard jointed cases and adapted to different 

 purposes in different parts of the body — some being feelers, others 

 jaws, others legs : their general type of structure is that which 

 characterises the phylum Arthropoda. The Oysters, again, with 

 their hard calcareous shell secreted by a pair of special folds 

 of the skin constituting what is termed the mccntle, and with a 

 special arrangement of the nervous system and other organs which 



