INTESTINAL WORMS. 
125 
neither do they scruple much, if other prey be scarce, to 
eat their fellow-creatures. To accomplish this, the little 
cannibals are gifted with a very curious kind of mouth ; 
one, indeed, which has no parallel in any other race of 
beings. This mouth consists of a long fleshy funnel, 
plaited like a fan, which can be folded up or spread abroad 
at pleasure. Should a worm approach, this funnel is un- 
folded and applied around the body of its prey, which, 
thus retained, in spite of all its struggles, is soon sucked 
and emptied of its juices. 
“ Another circumstance connected with the history of 
these animals worthy of mention, is their great tenacity 
of life. If a Planaria be cut in two, so trifling does the 
occurrence seem, that either part moves on as if quite 
unconscious of having lost its hotter half, and straightway 
can repair the little inconvenience thus produced, the 
missing portions soon growing again. 
“ Nay, sometimes they divide spontaneously into two 
animals, each of which, perfect in all its parts, evinces all 
the powers of the original being.” * 
An extraordinary creature was discovered by Dr Nord- 
mann, infesting the gills of one of our commonest river 
fishes — Cyprimts brama — and to which he gave the appro- 
priate appellation of the Twin-worm ( Diplozoon para- 
doxum). It is not more than one-fourth of an inch in 
length, but consists of two bodies, precisely resembling each 
other, united by a central band, exactly in the manner of 
the Siamese youths, whose exhibition excitedso much atten- 
tion in England and America a few years ago. We mignt 
have supposed that, like the human monstrosity in ques- 
* Jones’s “ Lectures on Natural History,” i. 157. 
