204 ON THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



mal of the division Mollusca (Ascidia mamillaris Linn.) 

 which exists without any visible organs of sense, except 

 that of taste, whose substance is little better than a homo- 

 geneous gelatinous pulp, whose inert nature seems to de- 

 prive it of any power like that of voluntary motion ; a be- 

 ing- which is consequently reduced to fix itself to solid 

 bodies, or to be the sport of winds and waves ; whose 

 principal sign of life consists in the absorption and spouting 

 forth of water, and whose animal properties in short are 

 all comprised in its irritability, its circulation, and respi- 

 ration. Yet because these two last qualities appear in 

 this animal, whose existence is little better than vegetative, 

 to bear some resemblance to the circulation and respiration 

 in some of the Fertebrala, we find it placed in the com- 

 mon systems before the bee, which astonishes us by its 

 industry and social qualities ; before the ant, which excites 

 our admiration by its frugality and courage; and before 

 the other numberless insects, which by their manners and 

 stratagems have often made the naturalist hesitate as to 

 the point where he would draw the line, and separate 

 instinct from reason. 



Nevertheless, if the series of ganglions along the double 

 nervous thread of insects, and the different ramifications 

 which emanate from this remarkable system for the pur- 

 pose of animating the members and organs of sense in the 

 Annulpsa, be considered, it may be asked whether this sy- 

 stem does not present to the eye infinitely more order and 

 harmony than the ganglions which are irregularly di- 

 spersed in the Mollusca throughout the whole body. But 

 then the oyster, it will be urged, possesses a brain, though in 

 fact that nervous ganglion which is said to be situated 

 over the oesophagus, and therefore has been honoured with 



