tinal, molluscous, testaceous, zoophytic, and infusory.

The FIRST ORDER OF INTESTINAL, with a few exceptions which are found in the waters, consists of animals that are uniformly traced in the bowels of the earth, or of other animals; whence, indeed, their ordinal name. They are ordinally characterised as being simple, naked animals, without limbs. I shall instance as examples of it, the ascaris, which is found so frequently in the intestinal tube of mankind, in the species of maw or thread-worm, and round-worm: the tænia, which comprises among many others the two species of tape-worm and hydatid; and the filaria or Guinea-worm, which inhabits both the Indies, and is frequent in the morning dew; at which time it winds unperceived into the naked feet of slaves, or other menials, and creates the most troublesome itchings, frequently accompanied with inflammation and fever. The only method of extracting it is to draw it out cautiously by means of a piece of silk tied round its head as it peeps from the inflamed surface; for if, in consequence of too much straining, the animal should break, the part remaining under the skin will still survive, grow with redoubled vigour, and occasionally augment the local inflammation to such an extent, as to prove fatal. It is often twelve feet long, though not larger in diameter than a horse-hair.

The next intestinal worm at which it is worth while to throw a glance as we pass on, is the

fasciola or fluke, principally known from one of its species being found in large abundance in the liver of sheep during the disease called the rot, but whether the cause or the result of this disease has never yet been sufficiently ascertained. There are other species of this animal found in the stomach, intestines, or liver of various other animals, and occasionally of man himself. The fasciola is hermaphrodite and oviparous.

The gordius or hair-worm is chiefly worthy of notice as being supposed, in one of its species, if incautiously handled, to inflict a bite at the end of the fingers, and produce the complaint called a whitlow. It inhabits soft stagnant waters, is from four to six inches long, and is almost perpetually twisting itself into various contortions and knots.

The two last kinds I shall enumerate under this order of worms are, the lumbricus or earthworm, including the dew-worm and the slug; and the hirudo or leech, both of them too well known under several species to require any farther remark in the present rapid outline. This order includes nearly the whole of M. Cuvier's class of worms, with the exception of his seaworms, already adverted to.

The SECOND ORDER of the WORM CLASS is denominated MOLLUSCA, MOLLUSCOUS, or SOFTBODIED SHELL-WORMS; and consists, for the most part, of similar animals to those found in snail, oyster, nautilus, and other shells, but

without a shelly defence: and hence, in their ordinal character, they are described as simple animals, naked, but furnished with limbs, of some kind or other. By this last mark they are distinguished from the preceding, or intestinal order, which, as already observed, consists of simple animals, naked and destitute of limbs. To place the order more immediately before you, I shall select a few examples from those animals that are most familiar to us, or are most remarkable for the singularity of their structure or other properties.

The limax or slug, is one of the most simple animals that belongs to this order: its only limbs are four feelers, tentacles, or horns, as they are commonly called, situate above the mouth, with a black dot at the tip of each of the larger ones, which is supposed to be an eye, though this point has not been fully established. Another genus of molluscous worms is the terebella; one species of which is the ship-worm, with an oblong, creeping, naked body, and numerous capillary feelers about the mouth, from four to six inches in length. It is sometimes inclosed in a testaceous or shelly tube, and is then called termes, pipe-worm, or shelly shipworm, and belongs to the next order. In both forms it is peculiarly destructive to shipping; boring its way into the stoutest oak planks, with great rapidity and facility; and chiefly forming a necessity for their being copper-bottomed. The animal is, in its habits, gregarious; and

hence, in attacking a vessel, it advances in at multitudinous body, every individual punetiliously adhering to its own cell, which is separated from the adjoining by a partition not thicker than a piece of writing-paper. In a preceding lecture, however, I had occasion to observe, when glancing at the shelly ship-worm, or teredo navalis, that by its attacking the stagnant trunks of trees and other vegetable materials, that in many parts of the world are washed or thrown down by torrents and tornadoes from the mountains, and block up the mouths of creeks and rivers, and thus powerfully contributing to the dissolution of dead vegetable matter, it produces far more benefit than evil; the benefit being universal, but the evil partial and limited. In 1731 and 1732 they appeared in great numbers on the banks of Zealand, and considerably alarmed the Dutch, lest the piles by which these banks are supported should have been suddenly destroyed. They never, however, staid long enough to commit mischief, the climate, perhaps, being too cold for them.

Another genus worthy of notice under this order is the actinia, which includes those species of naked sea-worms which are vulgarly called sea-daisy, actinia Bellis; sea-carnation, a. Dianthus; sea-anemony, a. Anemonoides ; and sea-marigold, a. Calendula; from their resemblance to the stems and flowers of these plants. The first three are found on the warmer rocky coasts of our own country, as those of

Sussex; and the last on the shores of Barbadoes. The sea-carnation is sometimes thrown upon our flat coasts, and left evacuated of its water by the return of the tide; in which case it has the appearance of a slender, long-stalked, yellow fig.

Most of us are acquainted with some species of the sepia or cuttle-fish, which is another genus of the order before us. The common cuttlefish, sepia officinalis, is an inhabitant of the ocean, and is preyed upon by the whale and plaise-tribes; its arms are also frequently eaten off by the conger-eel, but are reproducible. The bony scale on the back is that alone which is usually sold in the shops, under the name of cuttle-fish, and is employed in making pounce. These animals have the singular power, when pursued by an enemy, of squirting out a black fluid or natural ink, which darkens the waters all around, and thus enables it to escape. This natural ink forms an ingredient in the composition of our Indian inks. The worm or fish, was formerly eaten by the ancients, and is still occasionally used as food by the Italians. In hot climates, some of the species grow to a prodigious size, and are armed with a dreadful apparatus of holders, furnished with suckers, by which, like the elephant with its proboscis, they can rigidly fasten upon and convey their prey to the mouth. In the eight-armed cuttlefish, sepia octopodia, which inhabits the Indian seas, the arms or holders, are said to be not less than nine fathoms in length. In consequence