21 
ffomiology, and illustrated in my 
Analysis of Nature in 1815, This 
name is very good, but if not agree- 
able to all, I have half a dozen 
others to offer as substitutes: Bio - 
pores , or Zoopores f or Leptremes t or 
Melostomes , &c. Because it is my 
wish that this class or large section 
of animals should bear a good name 
given by me^nstead of the delusory 
one of Jlnimalcula or microscopic 
animals , which does not apply to 
all. 
Besides it is very probable that 
many other, if not all the animals 
without mouths, must belong to this 
class; such as the mouthless 
Meduses, the Tethya, Alcyons and 
Spunges; perhaps some Oscillatoria 
and Conferves . These porostome 
animals are generally aquatic and 
floating: but there are some fixed 
ones also. Others are parasitical 
(like many worms) living in other 
animals. Some may be terrestrial 
like the Geonema above. The Mias- 
mata or miasmic animalcula of the 
air, may be the invisible birds of this 
class, or aerial insects floating in the 
air. This may appear a bold surmise, 
but’it is not preposterous; they have 
hardly been seen yet, but are per- 
fectly well indicated already. 
Lastly, there are also fossil 
animals of this class. They must 
have existed abundantly in the 
primitive earth; and some of those 
with a cartilaginous or leathery body 
have been fossilized. My fine N. 
G. Trianisites of 1818 maybe one, 
also my N. G. Bolactites , Geodites , 
GranuliteSj Tractinites, &,c. dis- 
covered in the oldest geological 
strata, of Kentucky, and united 
protein to the Alcyonites. Some 
may also have been akin to the 
actual JYullipores of the sea, which 
are real stony plants and not ani- 
mals: having no motion whatever, 
being fixed, without mouths nor 
viscera; no polyps about them: a 
mere vegetative concretion of the 
sea with minute pbres. Some na- 
turalists even deem them a kind of 
marine stalagmites. We may well 
wonder how La mark put them 
among animals. It was probably 
like the Porostomes, Corallines, and 
Spunges upon a mere surmise of 
animality. But I defy any natural- 
ist to perceive any motion in them, 
or to find out their polyps or 
mouths. 
I send you the figures and de- 
scriptions of ten N. G. of aquatic 
porostomes, which will demonstrate 
the variety of size and form. I 
described besides as early as 1 814 
the gigantic Jlproctomus of Sicily, 
and in 1825 the large Scalenium of 
the ocean. 
1. Stigoma tripunctata. Ocean, 
one inch, cuneate flat, head obli- 
quely bilobe, tail mucronate, three 
dots on the back. 
2. Lobuloma inequalis . Ocean, 
one line, flat with six unequal lobes 
on the margin. 
3. Thalanema capitata . Ocean, 
two inches, filiform fiexuose like 
Vibrio , but one end enlarged oboval 
obtuse. 
4. Zoocoilon levis. Sicily, half 
inch, subglobular, truncate, with a 
large cavity occupying the whole 
inside, 
5. Folasmus pectinatus . Sicily, 
one inch, oblong lamellar or pecti- 
nate beneath transversally. 
6. Diplepha gibbosa , Lake 
Erie, half line, oblong sinuose, 
gibbose, two pairs of geminate 
bristles, a fifth at one end. 
7. Disynema isella* Kentucky, 
pools, microscopic. Two threads 
united at both ends; like a con- 
ferva, but with free motion. 
8. Blobula varians, Kentucky, 
infusory. Oblong sinuate, one end 
with five bristles, theyflher with 
one. 
9. Pecticoma paradoxa . Kent, 
infus. oblong sinuate, ciliated be- 
neath, bristles unequal three longest, 
one in the middle and another at 
each end. 
10. Lone oma incur va* Kent in- 
fus, oblong compressed shaped like 
a curved knife, the two ends acute, 
one raised up, no organs® 
