LIKES A.TsJ> DTSLTKES. 
3G5 
into w bich plastic clay and silica have been moulded, are replete with 
instruction. For the resemblances which at first seemed to assimilate 
classes and genera do, in fact, strengthen divisional lines and increase 
the value of species." 
Perhaps the future attempts which our enthusiastic contributor 
may make to solve the mystery of the Origin of Species, may be ma- 
terially aided through the means of a handful of London mud. Per- 
haps even oyster-grottos or card-houses may have their deep mystic 
significations on the problem, and give the " stamp of verity and 
truth " to the " tracings made for the amusement of young natu- 
ralists." In the meanwhile, to the tender mercies of those zoologists 
who have worked out the FoJyzoa we commend the following descrip- 
tion : — 
*' Among the oddest, though at the same time the most graceful, of 
natural patterns, maybe reckoned the aggregated cells which make up the 
homes of those low-class molluscan animals, the Polyzoa-Br^^ozoa, or moss- 
corals, as they are commonly called. A living mass of this moss-coral, 
viewed through a microscope, looks like a screen of carven stone-work, 
with openings where light is needed. Keeping watch at one of these holes, 
presently we see a tiny beak of transparent jelly peeping through ; and, if 
the coast is clear, rosy-tipped fingers of the same exquisite material are 
pushed out, to catch and entangle the floating atoms in the water. Some 
openings or celKdoors are hooded in rather a comical way, and each one 
has a living tenant, who at times ' stands at his door in a diamond frill,' 
and fishes for his dinner. One of these cellules is seen to be hooded like 
a calceolaria flower ; another uplifts little childlike arms ; a third has per- 
forated ears and a very mousy look." 
HowM(? ears ofaBryozoon can be perforated — even, if it had any, 
how it could be mousy — we fail to perceive. To pick a last ex- 
ample of the many absurdities which still remain, we are told that "tlie 
head of a small Clupean fish from the Caribbean Sea presents a re- 
markable resemblance in facial contour to the present Emperor of the 
French." Falstaff compares himself to a " shotten herring ;" but we 
have too much respect for the Anglo-French alliance to endorse such 
an " unsavoury simile " in respect to Louis ^^apoleon. 
We like real fun and enjoy real wit as much as anybody, but we 
dislike to see science " made funny " for the sake of the so-many 
shillings a column which the proprietor of a magazine pays, in confi- 
dence of the ability of his contributor to send him good matter. We 
dislike to see science deliberately degraded. 
We are sorry to think that ' Likes and Similitudes ' emanates 
from the pen of an author who sometimes dates his lucubrations from 
the Geological Society. 
