SUPPLEMENT 
i 2 
In the ampliitritse, we may very well trace along the bran- 
chial cirrus a nervous thread, which accompanies the vas- 
cular system. 
One of the singularities presented by the chetopoda is, that 
their recrementitious fluid, or the blood, is almost constantly 
red, the aphrodites excepted. Of the cause of this we are 
entirely ignorant. 
Their phosphoric property is altogether remarkable, at 
least in the smaller species. From this Linnaeus long since 
denominated one of their species nereis noctiluca . M. 
Viviani has likewise noticed one of them among the animals 
to which he attributed the phosphorescence of the waters of 
the sea of Genoa. 
The chetopoda have in general been too little observed in 
the living state, and especially for a sufficient time, to en- 
able us to know any thing with certainty respecting their 
physiology, or their natural history. 
We only know from the experiments of Muller, that the 
nereides and the naides are capable of reproducing the parts 
of their body which have been amputated. 
The chetopoda are almost all aquatic, the earth-worms 
excepted, and even those, to a certain point, may be regarded 
as such, so much need have they of humidity, and so much 
do they fear, and are injured by drought. A great part of 
these animals live in the waters of the sea. It may be even 
remarked, that there are few marine beings that perish so soon 
when they are put into fresh water. The majority of the 
naides live in fresh water. It would appear, too, that though 
the nereides generically belong to the sea, that some true 
species may be found in the lakes of North America. 
Some of these animals are to be found in all quarters of the 
world, and, except the Amphinomm, which have not yet been 
met with except in the seas of warm latitudes, and particu- 
