T^N TAF 
V’ays small, and they become gradually en- of the animal. As it has no excretory 
larged as they are further removed from it j ducts, it would appear that the whole of its 
but towards the tail a few of the last joints alimentary fluid is fit for nourishment; the 
again become diminished in size. The ex- decayed parts probably dissolve into a fluid 
tremity of tiie body is terminated by a which transudes through the skin, which is 
small semicircular Joint, which has no open- extremely porous. 
ing m it. This animal has nothing resembling a 
The head of this animat is composed of brain or nerves, and seems to have no or- 
the same kind of materials as the other 
parts of its body ; it has a rounded opening 
at its extremity, which is considered to be 
its mouth. This opening is continued by a 
short duct into two canals; these canals 
pass round every joint of the animat’s body, 
and convey the aliment. Surrounding the 
opening of the mouth are placed a number 
of projecting radii, which are of a fibrous 
texture, whose direction is longitudinal. 
These radii appear- to serve the purpose of 
tentacula for fixing the orifice of the mouth, 
as well as that of muscles to expand the ca- 
vity of the mouth, from their being insert- 
ed along the brim of that opening. After 
the rounded extremity or head has been 
narrowed into the neck, the lower part be- 
comes flatted, and has two small tubercles 
placed upon each flatted side ; the tuber- 
cles are concave in the middle, and appear 
destined to serve the purpose of suckers for 
. attaching the head more efiectually. Tire 
internal structme of the joints composing 
the body of this animal is partly vascular 
and partly cellular ; the substance itself is 
white, and somewhat resembles in its tex- 
ture the coagulated lymph of the human 
blood. The alimentary canal passes along 
each side of the animal, sending a cross ca- 
nal over the bottom of each joint, which 
connects the two lateral canals together. 
Mr. Carlisle injected with a coloured 
size, by a single push with a, small syringe, 
three feet in lengtli of these canals, in the 
direction from the mouth downwards. He 
tried the injection the contrary way, but it 
seemed to be stopped by valves. The ali- 
mentary canal is impervious at the extreme 
joint, where it terminates without any open- 
ing analogous to an anus. Each joint has a 
vascular joint occupying the middle part, 
which is composed of a longitudinal canal, 
from which a great inimber of lateral canals 
blanch off at right angles. These canals 
contain a fluid like milk. 
The taenia seems to be one of the sim- 
plest vascular animals in nature. The way 
in which it is nourished is singular; the 
food being taken in by tlie mouth, passes 
into the alimentary canal, and is thus made 
to visit in a general way the different parts 
gans of sense but those of touch. It is 
most probably propagated by ova, wliich 
may easily pass along the circulating vessels 
of other animals. We cannot otherwise 
explain the phenomena of worms being 
found in the eggs of fowls, and in the intes- 
tines of a foetus before birth, except by 
supposing their ova to have passed throngti 
the circulating vessels of tlie mother, and 
by this means been conveyed to the foetus. 
The chance of an ovum being placed in 
a situation where it will be hatched, and 
the young find convenient subsistance, must 
be very small; hence the necessity for their 
being very prolific. If they had the same 
povyers of being prolific which they now 
have, and their ova were afterwards very 
readily hatched, then the multiplication of 
these animals would be immense, and be- 
come a nuisance to the other parts of the 
creation. 
Another mode of increase allowed to t»- 
nia (if we may call it increase) is by an ad- 
dition to the number of their joints. If wo 
consider the individual joints, as distinct be- 
ings, it is so ; and w hen we reflect upon the 
power of generation given to each joint, it 
makes this conjecture the more probable. 
We can hardly suppose that an ovum of a 
tmnia, which at its full growth is thirty feet 
long, and composed of four hundred joints, 
contained a young taenia composed of this 
number of pieces ; but we have seen young 
tcEiii® not half a foot long, and not possess- 
ed of fifty joints, which still were entire 
worms. We have also many reasons to be- 
lifeve, that when a part of this animal is 
broken off from the rest, it is capable of 
forming a head for itself, and becomes an 
independent being. The simple construc- 
tion of the head makes its regeneration a 
much more easy operation than that of the 
tails and feet of lizards, which are composed 
of bones and complicated vessels ; but this 
last operation has been proved by the ex- 
periments of Spallanzani and many other 
naturalists. 
TAFFETY, in commerce, a fine smooth 
s'lken stuff, remarkably glossy. See Silk. 
lliere are talfeties of all colours, some plain, 
and others striped with gold, silver, &c> 
