AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. 263 



parts. If these same organs be more numerous than 

 usual — albeit, their relations are but slightly changed 

 —the naturalist will see before him so many monstrous 

 individuals. 



But if this same naturalist has placed before him a 

 portion of coral, or a piece of a compound ascidian 

 which has been slightly mutilated, he cannot now 

 decide as he had done before, unless, indeed, the 

 traces of its injuries indicate that some accident has 

 befallen the object he examines. No matter how 

 numerous the coral's branches, or the geometric figures 

 of the ascidian may be, the most acute savant cannot 

 proclaim it to be a monstrosity. From this fact alone 

 we may conclude that neither the coral nor the 

 ascidian plate is an . individual, notwithstanding the 

 general form which characterizes it, and which allows 

 of its various species being distinguizhed almost at a 

 glance. 



Careful observation bears out this conclusion. In 

 both cases we perceive a great number of beings 

 whose aggregation constitutes an entirety. Now, 

 each of these beings presents a series of conditions 

 identical with those found in man himself. It is com- 

 posed of parts, whose number and relations are fixed. 

 Each of them is an animal, is a distinct individual. 

 The polypidom and the ascidian plate are only aggre- 

 gations. They are, so to speak, villages or towns, 

 in which the polyps represent the inhabitants, and the 

 cavities take the place of houses. Hence we can 

 understand that both houses and inhabitants may be 

 multiplied without altering the fundamental condition 

 of things. Paris and Constantinople hold the same 

 positions in the world, despite the influence of epidemics 



