CYCLOPEDIA 



I-': .3 



OR, A NEW 



UNIVERSAL DICTIONARY 



OF 



ARTS and SCIENCES. 



VERMES. 



VERMES, ill Anatomy and Phyftolagy. We have ex- 

 plained, underCjLASsiFicATioN, the objections to which 

 the Linnsean clafs of Vermes is hable, confidered as one 

 of tlie great divifions of the animal kingdom ; and we have 

 propofed, in place of it, an arrangement grounded on the dif- 

 tinftions of anatomical ftrufture, and therefore better fuited 

 to the puipofes of comparative anatomy, as well as more 

 conformable to natural method. As the anatomical defcrip- 

 tion of tlie Mollusca (which order includes mod of the 

 I.innspan vciim-a) toiild not be prepnrpd in time to appear 

 under that word, it has been deferred to the prefent article, 

 which will include alfo an account of the clafles Vermes 

 andZooPHYTA. In his " Handbuch der Naturgefchichte," 

 Blumenbach retains the Linnajan term Vermes, dividing the 

 clafs into, I. Intcftina ; II. MoUufca ; III. Teftacea ; 

 IV. Cruftacca ( Echino-dermata, Cuvier) ; V. Corallia 

 (Zoophytes of mod naturali(ls); and VI. Zoophyta (chiefly 

 microfcopic animals and the animalcula infuforia). 



In the following article we fhall employ the terms Mol- 

 lusca, Vermes, and Zoophyta, not in the acceptation in 

 which they are ufed by Linnseus or Blumenbach, but as 

 they are explained in the article Classification; — the 

 fame fenfe in which they arc ufed by the French naturahfts 

 generally, and by Cuvier particularly, in his moft valuable 

 and ufeful works, the " Tableau clementaire" and " Le- 

 mons d' Anatomic comparec." 



When, ill defcending along the fcale of living beings, we 

 arrive, after the clafs of fifhes, at the in vertebraf animals, or 

 fuch as have no vertebral column, we enter on an immcnfe 

 fcrics of various crc.itures, the moft numerous, and at the 

 fame time the moft curious and intercfting in refpeft to the 

 difference of their organization and f.icultics. 



At this point in the fcale, the vertebral column i» anni- 

 hilated : as this column is the bafis of the fkclcton, the latter 



Vol. XXXVII. 



no longer exifts ; and confequently the moving parts no 

 longer have their points of aftion on internal organs. 



Moreover, no invertebral animij breathes by means of 

 cellular lungs : none have any vocal organ, nor confequently 

 voice. They appear, at leaft for the moft part, not to have 

 true blood ; that is, not to have a fluid undergoing a true 

 circulation, and pofleffing, as one of its eflential charafters, 

 the red colour. It would be an abufe of words to call the 

 colourlefs fluid, which moves (lowly in the cellular fub- 

 ftance of polypes, blood. We might as well give that 

 name to the fap of vegetables. 



This conftant and ftriking difference of colour in the 

 nutritive fluids has been adopted, by fome zoologifts, as the 

 bafis of their firft great divifion of the animal kingdom. 

 The primary divifion into red-blooded and white-blooded 

 correfponds with that into vertebral and invertebral .mimals. 



The eye has no iris in invertebral animals. They have i>0 

 kidney. 



In the vertebral clafles, and particularly in the firft, or 

 that of moft complicated and perfeft organization, all the 

 eflential organs are infulatcd, occupying diftindl and fepa- 

 rate fituatioiis ; in the invertebral, they are all brought to- 

 gether. 



In his " Tableau elementairc," Cuvier introduces us to the 

 Zoophytes as the laft or moft fimplc of the anim.il king- 

 dom in their organization and faculties. The MoUufca 

 pofiefs nearly the fame apparatus of organs for digeftioii, 

 circulation, refpiration, and feiifation as red-blooded ani- 

 mals ; and they even come very near in thefe points to filh. 

 Infcfts, occupying a lower rank in the fcale, have no diftinA 

 circulation, and refpirc by trachea:. Yet tlicy polTefs a fpin.il 

 marrow, nerves, and organs of fenfe. In moft vermes wc 

 recognife analogous parts, and tluy probably cxift in all. 

 But, in the zoophytes, wc no longer difcern thefe organic 



B apparatufee : 



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