WORMS. 



135 



ganglions, which send forth ramifying threads on each side, 

 thus distributing sensibility to all parts of the body. 



There is in all these creatures a distinct head,* fur- 

 nished with various organs of sense ; and for the supply of 

 these the nervous matter is more abundant there than in 

 other parts, forming a thick ring round the gullet and 

 uniting into an enlarged ganglion above it. In confor- 

 mity with this concentrated condition of the nervous sys- 

 tem, the animals with which we have now to do display a 

 perfection of sense, an energy of motion, and a versatility 

 of instinct, which are unknown to those ranks that are 

 below them in the vital scale. In all these qualities, as 

 well as in the physical peculiarities which we have enu- 

 merated, there exists considerable diversity ; so that the 

 great division before us is naturally divided into several 

 subordinate, but still important groups. 



We cannot in these pages review every link in the vast 

 chain of Nature, though we may safely predicate that 

 there is not one which would not well repay the investi- 

 gation by some fresh evidence of the perfections of the 

 Godhead ; not one which would not testify with fulness 

 and clearness — 



" The hand that made us is divine !" 



The humblest class of Articulated animals is that of the 

 Worms (Annelida), which are not very remotely sepa- 

 rated from those lengthened forms of Echinodermata, 

 which we lately considered. An Earth-worm or a Leech is 

 not, indeed, an articulate animal, strictly so called ; but it 



* In some of the Worms, indeed, as well as in the Rotifera, the head does 

 not exist in its ordinary distinct form, but the organs of sense are present, 

 and the exception is more apparent than real. 



