CEPHALOPODS. 
463 
What does all this imply ? Is the Argonaut a parasite ? a fraudu- 
lent disinheritor of the poor ? a vile assassin, who, having surprised 
a nd killed the legitimate proprietor of the shell, has installed itself in 
ds place, and in the proper house of its victim ? Such crimes are 
Hot without example in the natural history of animals — witness the 
Proceedings of the curious hermit crab, whose proceedings we shall 
glance at in a future chapter. The parasitic character of the Nautilus 
w as long conceded by naturalists ; hut recent facts have corrected this 
°pinion. We have collected their shells, of all dimensions and of all 
a ges, inhabited always by the same animal, whose size is always pro- 
portioned to the volume of the shell. More than that, it is now 
known that in the egg of the Nautilus the rudiments of the shell 
f, xist. M. Chenu tells us, that under the microscope Professor 
1 hivernoy discovered a distinct shell contained in the embryo. Sir 
Everard Home asserts the contrary ; and no opportunity presonted 
'Eelf for the complete solution of the question, until Poli was placed 
hy the King of Naples in a position to solve it. The piscina of Portici 
Was placed at his disposal. He witnessed the curious mechanism 
V which the egg is expelled from the uterus, having a shell, and 
satisfied himself, by following their development day by day, that 
the shell existed in the embryo, and grew with the animal. He satis- 
fied himself also that the opinion enunciated by Aristotle, that at no 
Point did the animal adhere to the shell, was perfectly true. 
Finally, in the curious series of experiments carried on by Madame 
Fower, in the port of Messina, the fragments of the frail bark of the 
Mollusc, which were broken off in taking it, were restored in a tew 
hays, having been reproduced. It is, therefore, quite demonstrated 
Fiat the Nautilus, like other testaceous molluscs, itself secretes and 
constructs its shell — its diaphanous skiff. The reader, however, must 
u °t flatter himself that he can witness with his own eyes from the 
s fiore, in our narrow channel, the charming picture of the Nautilus 
Painted by poets and natural historians: they never come near the 
shore. They are timid and cautious creatures, dwelling almost always 
lr i the open sea. They live in families, some hundreds of miles from 
the shore ; and it is during the night, or at most in the fading light of 
s nnset, that they assemble together to pursue their gambols on the 
s Hrfacc of a tranquil sea. 
However reluctant we may be to destroy the marvellous fictions of 
