ANIMAL KINGDOM. 223 



Agastria, or Infusoria, 



Intestina, 



Polypi natantes, 



Polypi vaginati, 



Polypi rudes. 

 At first sight, however, there appears to be a want of that 

 symmetry in this circle so observable in the others which 

 compose the great divisions of the animal kingdom ; for the 

 Radiata have all a classical type to which their several 

 structures may be referred, as also have the Annulosa, Ver- 

 tebrata and Mollusca; whereas here we see Nature choos- 

 ing every possible type of form, and sporting as it were 

 with every thing like regularity. But this I apprehend is 

 the consequence of a too rapid glance, since Nature, so far 

 from forgetting order, has, at the commencement of her 

 work, in these imperfect animals given us a sketch of the 

 five different forms which she intended afterwards to adopt 

 for the whole animal kingdom. In the soft mucous slug- 

 gish Intestina she has given the outline of the Mollusca. 

 In the fleshy living mass which surrounds the bony and 

 hollow axis of the Polypi natantes, she has sketched a 

 vertebrated animal. In the crustaceous covering of the 

 living mass, and the structure more or less articulated in 

 the Polypi vaginati, we trace the form of the Annulosa ; 

 while the radiated forms of the Hotifera and the sim- 

 ple structure of the Polypi rudes may in general remind 

 us of the Radiata. 



I by no means profess myself sufficiently informed on 

 the subject to attempt, at present, a more rigorous and 

 detailed subdivision of these animals, much less to criti- 

 cise what has been already done in this province by learned 

 anatomists. Nevertheless, I cannot but consider the ana- 



