387 
Scientific Intelligence . — Zoology . 
1807 horned cattle, 735 calves, 15,182 sheep, 726 lambs, 2545 
goats, 183 kids, 4190 swine, 312 young pigs, and 703 dogs. The 
government has taken measures to prevent these devastations. 
32. On the Animal of the Argonaut .— -The ancient celebrity 
of the Argonaut, which can be traced to Pliny and Aristotle, 
and the wonders of its navigation, are well known* It is also 
known, that, from the ancients down to ourselves, naturalists have 
been divided upon the subject of this animal. Some regarded it 
as a parasitic guest, which, like certain Crustacea that lodge in 
empty shells, has possessed itself of that of the argonaut; others 
maintaining that the cephalopodous animal which is found in the 
shell is really its constructor and proprietor. All have agreed in 
considering the animal as a poulpe. M. de Blainville support- 
ed the former of these opinions. M. Ranzani has sucessfully 
combated M. de Blainville’s arguments, and shews, that the 
question, so far from having been decided by him, still remains 
in the same state. A small, but very well preserved, specimen 
of this animal, sent to M. de Ferussac, by M. Risso of Nice, 
has enabled the former naturalist to examine its structure with 
minuteness. There results from the facts related by M. de 
Ferussac, that what has been said bv the ancients on the sub- 
ject of the argonaut, presents the degree of accuracy which we 
might expect to find in works that have come down to us only 
after having undergone more or less numerous alterations ; nor 
could the authors of these works have applied to their writings 
the scrupulous accuracy to which the naturalists of the present 
times are accustomed. M. de Ferussac shews that the animal, 
when it is fresh, and has not been taken out of the shell, pre- 
sents upon its mantle, the exact form of this latter, and the im- 
pressions of the grooves and tubercles with which it is orna- 
mented. The bad state of preservation of the individuals ob- 
served by M. Blainville, has without doubt been one of the causes 
of his error on the subject of the argonaut. M. de Ferussac 
then describes this animal in its state of contraction, when it 
has retired within its shell, and shews that it must belong 
to it, since its construction is entirely conformable to the or- 
ganisation of its inhabitant. He makes known an interest- 
ing fact whicl| had hitherto remained unobserved,' "namely, that 
the spiral cavity, which is not filled by the extremity of the 
