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true worms, whether belonging to the Annelida of our author, 
or not, nevertheless, we find, in his definition of the slug, the 
word vermes employed as a principal name. 
With respect to the red-blooded worms, with w hich we arc 
most immediately concerned in this place, though some of our 
remarks may be fouud allusive to genera, thrown among the 
zoophytes by Cuvier, but comprehended by M. de Blainville 
in his classification of worms into Chetopoda and Apoda, (see 
text) the ancients seem to have known but very imperfectly 
the animals which constitute the class Annelida. Aristotle 
confines himself to stating, probably with regard to the 
nereides, and under the denomination of marine Scolopemlrce, 
that they are similar to the land Scolopendrm, but a little 
smaller, of a redder colour, with a greater number of feet, and 
more weak ; that they are born in the same manner as serpents, 
and in places full of rocks, not in the depths of the sea. 
Aristotle has also spoken of leeches, as well as of some intes- 
tinal worms. He adds, in another place, that they bite not 
with their mouth, but irritate by contact only, like the acala- 
plus, or sea-nettles (a class of zoophytes) ; that they emit an 
unpleasant odour ; and finally — which is somewhat less credi- 
ble — that when they are caught with a hook, they reject, or 
vomit forth all their intestines, until they have expelled the 
hook, and then put them in again, and go about as well 
as ever. 
Pliny has added nothing to the statements of Aristotle re- 
specting this class of animals. 
-■Elian, Oppian, Dioscorides, and Galen, have likewise done 
nothing but copy and exaggerate what has been left us by 
Aristotle. The two latter have merely added the remedies 
which they conceived to be of suitable application in case of 
accidents from the contact of the marine scolopendne, and 
those in the composition of which they employed the animals 
themselves. 
