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XXII. Observations on the Minute Structure of some of the higher forms of Polypi, 
with views of a more Natural Arrangement of the Class. By Arthur Farre, M.B. 
Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy at St. Bartholomew' s Hospital. Communicated 
by Richard Owen, Esq. F.R.S. 
Received May 11, — Read June 8th and 15th, 1837. 
To attempt the reformation of any class in the animal kingdom, — the numerous 
individuals of which are widely spread over the surface of the globe, many therefore 
difficult of access, and others, though easily obtained, yet extremely perishable, and 
for the most part so minute, as to require for their examination the utmost pene- 
tration of the microscope and unwearying perseverance in the observer — is a task 
of no little difficulty in the accomplishment, and one that may fairly entitle him who 
enters upon it to expect to meet with indulgence. 
It is probably owing to these retarding circumstances that the class Polypi, as 
now generally understood, presents such a heterogeneous accumulation of widely dif- 
fering structures as is perhaps to be found in few similar portions of the animal king- 
dom : and it is only by a strict investigation of the intimate structure of the various 
forms of animals that have been so indiscriminately heaped together, that any per- 
manent arrangement that shall indicate their true and natural affinities may be hoped 
for. 
The slightest glance at the history of the revolutions which the ideas of naturalists 
have undergone, with reference to this class since it first became known, will esta- 
blish the truth of this position, and show the importance of attending to the entire 
organization of the animal, as far as it can be known, in any attempt at classific 
arrangement. 
It is not wonderful, indeed, that a class of animals to which the name Zoophytes 
has been so long and universally applied, a name sufficiently expressive of the dubi- 
ous position which they were supposed to hold in the kingdom of nature, should by 
the earlier naturalists have been referred entirely to the vegetable or even to the mi- 
neral kingdom ; and accordingly we find that in the seventeenth century many of 
these were described as minerals by Boccone and Guison ; and by Cesalpin, Bauhin, 
Lobel, Tournefort and Ray as vegetables ; the great quantity of earthy materials, 
produced by many forms of Zoophytes, leading to the former supposition and giving 
rise to many theories, as to the growth of stones, &c. ; whilst the more obvious ex- 
ternal characters and habits would, under deficient means of observation, readily 
favour the latter. And this supposed alliance with the vegetable kingdom seemed to 
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