ANIMAL KINGDOM. 297 



stitute of organs, and having its nervous matter melted 

 down as it were into the general mass of the body, we 

 should have an animal indeed destitute of every sense ex- 

 cept irritability to the touch, but having this irritability 

 equally perfect in every molecule of its body. W e should 

 then be obliged to consider it as a compound animal, 

 made up of as many animals as there were molecules in 

 the body ; and it would in short be a polype as we see this 

 animal to exist in nature. 



TUNICATA. 



A minute gelatinous irregular compound animal, with- 

 out a head or distinct organs of sensation, inclosed in a 

 cartilaginous or coriaceous cell, and whose mouth is fur- 

 nished with six tentacula, cannot be far distant in nature 

 from the Polypi vaginati, even though a second opening 

 to the intestinal canal may now be distinctly traced. If 

 moreover the individuals composing such an animal be 

 disposed in regular systems, we may be allowed to refer 

 it to a place near that of the Flustra or Cellularice, in both 

 of which genera this disposition is also very observable.. 

 The Aplidium lobatum of Savigny is an animal of the na- 

 ture we have just described. It is a Polype by means of 

 which We may leave the Acrita and proceed to explore our 

 way into a more complicated region of organization. 



Our knowledge of the anatomy of the Tunicata, or Tn- 

 niciers, as they have been named by Lamarck, is entirely 

 owing to the brilliant discoveries of Pallas, Le Sueur, 

 Cuvier, and Desmarest, but, above all, to the admirable 

 patience and discriminative judgement of M. Savigny. 

 From what we have said of the Aplidium, it cannot ap- 

 pear remarkable that such an animal continued long to 



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