LECTURE XI. 
161 
any uncertainty that might still remain. By good 
fortune he succeeded in the attempt, and brought 
back a middle-sized specimen of the shell with the 
animal in it. This I examined, and had the fur- 
ther satisfaction to find that it exactly coincided 
with all that had been said by those who believed 
it to be the real inhabitant-animal of the shell. The 
two membranes were still wider in proportion than 
in any figure yet represented; and on each side the 
body was a very numerous groupe of small eggs. 
These I examined in order to find whether the em- 
brj^o-animal with its shelly covering existed in the 
egg, which w ould at once have been an experimen- 
tum crucis on the subject; but the eggs were not 
sufficiently advanced to shew this particular. Since 
that time however specimens of the animal in its 
shell have been brought to the French National 
Aluseum, and on an examination of the eggs in 
these specimens, it appears that the embryo-ani- 
mal is furnished, like snails and other shell animals, 
with the shell, even while yet in the egg ; so that, 
no farther doubt nov/ remains of the Cuttle-shaped, 
animal inhabiting the Paper Nautilus being the 
true and natural inmate of the shell. I have 
been the more particular on this subject, since 
LECT. II 
M 
