•BHURjiU
ZOOLOGICAL LECTFKES
GEORGE
ironLthe firfl Authorities and most select specimens
'/ss///s
M*.s GRIFFITH .
// /'//
Printed for GXearslev, Fleet Street,
L8O9<,
ZOOLOGICAL LECTURES
DELIVERED AT THE
ROYAL INSTITUTION
IN THE YEARS
1806 AND 1807,
GEORGE SHAW, M.D.F.R.S.
&c. &c.
VOL. II.
LONDON :
PRINTED FOR GEORGE KEARSLEY, FLEET-STREET;
n\ THOMAS DAVISON, WHITEFRIARS.
1809.
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The VigRetie fepresents the beautiful English Butterfly called
Papilio Cardui or the Painted Lady, with its caterpillar and
chrysalis.
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LECTURES,
LECTURE VII.
W E are now arrived at a class or tribe of the
animal kingdom highly remarkable both for sin-
gular external appearance and internal conforma-
tion. These animals differ from viviparous qua-
drupeds and from birds in the structure of those
important organs the heart and lungs. The
heart in these amphibious animals may be said to
have but one ventricle or cavity, instead of two as
in viviparous quadrupeds and birds. For though
some variation takes place in the formation of
this organ in the different tribes of the Amphibia,
yet the general effect with respect to the circula-
LECT. n. B
2 LECTURE VII.
tion is the same; and therefore in a general way
of speaking they may be properly said to have
what is called a unilocular heart, or furnished but
with a single cavity.
The blood of the Amphibia is always far less
warm than that of quadrupeds and birds; for which
reason they are often distinguished by the title of
cold-blooded animals : in this particular they re-
semble fishes, which are also, comparatively speak-
ing, cold-blooded animals.
The red particles of the blood itself both in
the Amphibia and Fishes, as well as in birds, are of
an oval shape; not round as in the viviparous qua-
drupeds. Their appearance when highly mag-
nified, is that of an oval transparent vesicle or
bladder, with a smaller and somewhat rounder
central one inclosed : they are also much larger in
, proportion. With respect to the structure of the
lungs in the animals of this tribe, the best method
of giving a clear general idea will be to observe,
that the lungs in most animals which are furnished
with those organs, consist of vesicles or air-blad-
ders more or less large in proportion to the blood-
vessels distributed between them. Now in qua-
drupeds the vascular system is so extremely large,
LECTURE VII. 3
or bears so great a proportion to the vesicular
one, or that of the air-cells, that the latter are
scarce distinctly visible without a close and minute
survey; but on. the contrary, in the Amphibia the
vesicular system greatly preponderates over the
vascular, insomuch that in some of the tribe, -as
in the Tortoises for instance, the lungs seem to
consist almost entirely of bladders or vesicles,
while the blood-vessels distributed through them,
and constituting their vascular system, appear
very slight in comparison. In Frogs the difference
is still more striking; for in these animals the
lungs, when in a state of inflation, exhibit the ap-
pearance of a pair of bladders, the internal part
or cavity of which is slightly subdivided into mi
merous cells, reaching but a little way down, or
in such a manner as to leave a large central, va-
cuity in each lobe of the lungs ; while the blood-
vessels are distributed in a very elegant and beau-
tiful manner between them. In many of the
Lizards the lungs seem even less complex than in
the Frogs; for in some of the smaller Lizards,
and particularly in the common Water- Newt, or
L. aquatica of Linnaeus, the lungs are merely a
, -pair of lengthened bladders, without any internal
4 LECTURE VII.
subdivisions, and exhibit the artery and vein in
a more simple state of ramification than in the
Frogs. In the Serpent tribe the structure of the
lungs seems to run between that of Frogs and
Lizards ; the upper part being divided internally
into smaller cells, while the remainder degenerates
into a mere continued bladder as in the Lizards.
The whole tribe of the proper or Linnaean
Amphibia, viz. the Tortoises, Frogs, Lizards, and
Serpents, possess a kind of voluntary power by
which they are able at pleasure to suspend their
respiration; so as to continue for a long time
without breathing, by retaining air within their
lungs, instead of being obliged to discharge it
frequently, as quadrupeds and birds are obliged to
do. Linnaeus therefore, among other characters
of the Amphibia gives that of arbitrary lungs,
pulmones arbitrarily or such as can at pleasure
suspend respiration, without injuring the animal.
Upon this principle it is that these animals may
be confined in the closest situations without seem-
ing to suffer any material inconvenience, and
many of them are calculated for residing with al-
most equal ease either on land or under water.
In Frogs so strong is this power of retaining air
LECTURE VII. s
in the lungs, without any necessity of renewal,
that the common Frog has been known to survive
six or seven days when confined by a weight at a
considerable depth under water*.
Many of the amphibious animals are capable
of supporting a long continued abstinence from
food : this is particularly the case in the Serpent
tribe and in some of the Lizards j and so tena-
cious are they of the principle of life, that the
heart in many of the tribe will continue its pulsa-
tions for a long time after being taken from the
body ; nay, even when it has apparently ceased
to beat, it may again be stimulated into exertion
by the application of any sharp-pointed body or
other irritating substance.
All the Amphibia are oviparous ; some of them
depositing hard eggs, or covered with a calcarious
shell as in birds, while others deposit soft eggs, or
spawn, either in the form of continued strings or
chains of eggs, or else in heaps or loose clusters.
In several of the Amphibia however, the eggs are
hatched internally, as in the Viper tribe and in
* It also lies concealed during the winter season, in a state of tor-
pidity beneath the mud of ponds and lakes.
6 LECTURE VII.
some of the Lizards. The young of such as de-
posit hard or shelled eggs are commonly produced
in their perfect or complete form, or differing
from the parent animal in size alone; but the
young of many of those which are produced from
spawn or soft eggs pass through a kind of tadpole
state, and appear for some time in a form very
different from that which they afterwards assume.
But these particulars will be farther attended to
as we pass through the different genera.
The first division of the Linnaean Amphibia
consists of but four distinct genera or sets, com-
prising all the kinds of Tortoises, Frogs and Li-
zards, one particular kind of which, on account
of its very peculiar form, constitutes a distinct
genus from the rest. These four genera are en-
titled Testudo, Rana, Draco, and Lacerta, or Tor-
toise, Frog, Dragon, and Lizard. These animals
constitute the four-footed Amphibia, and are what
the older writers on natural history as well as
some of the moderns, have called Oviparous Qua-
drupeds. Amongst others, the Count de Cepede,
in his continuation of Buffon's natural history,
chooses to call them by this title, and it must be
confessed to be by no means an unscientific oy
LECTURE VII. 7
improper one, though liable to some criticisms. I
should observe that Linnaeus, from a mistaken
idea, relative to the structure of their gills, which
he conceived to be accompanied by a kind of
lungs, admitted into the Amphibia several of the
Fish tribe, as the Lampreys, the Rays, the Sharks
and many others, which the more accurate re-
searches of later naturalists have restored to their
proper situation. The particular reasons for the
Linnsean arrangement of them will be explained
when we arrive at that tribe of animals : at pre-
sent we shall confine ourselves to the genuine
Amphibia.
Of these the first genus or Tortoise, (Testudo,)
is characterized by having the body defended by a
strong bony or horny covering: the mouth without
teeth, the upper jaw closing over the edges of the
lower. Tortoises are divided into the land and
sea-Tortoises, which latter are termed Turtles,
and have the.feet so formed as to bear a sort of
resemblance to fins : there are also river or fresh-
water Tortoises. All the land Tortoises have the
feet divided into toes and furnished with claws;
and the river or fresh-water Tortoises have their
feet more or less webbed. Of the land Tortoises
g LECTURE VII.
one of the most pommon is the T. Graeca of Lift*
nseus or Grecian Tortoise, which is supposed to
be a native of almost all the countries bordering
on the Mediterranean sea, and to be more fre-
quent in Greece than in other regions. It is
found in the scattered islands of the Archipelago,
and in Corsica and Sardinia. It also occurs in
many parts of Africa.
In no branch of natural history have more
errors prevailed than in that relating to the Tor-
toise tribe, and more particularly with respect to
the true distinction of the species; the general
similarity being very great, and the individuals
occasionally varying much in size, colours, and
other particulars, according to the different periods
of their growth, and their state of perfection.
Their specific characters given by Linnaeus are
proved, from later observations, to be entirely in-
sufficient for the purpose of accurate distinction ;
and the same must be said of those in the Gme*
linian edition of the Systema Naturae, The de-
scriptions of Count de Cepede in his History of
Oviparous Quadrupeds, have by no means tended
to dispel the general obscurity, but in some in-
stances, have rather increased it. One observation
H
h
o
LECTURE VII. 9
of Mr. Schoepf, a German author who has written
on this subject, is particularly important, and may
tend to save zoological students a great deal of
trouble j viz. that the apparent number of the
claws or projecting extremities on the feet of the
marine Tortoises or Turtles, appears to be no cer-
tain criterion of the species, but is found to vary
in such a manner as to contradict the Linnsean
characters. Thus on collating a number of spe-
cimens of the Testudo Mydas or common green
Turtle, some will be found with only a single claw
on each foot, others with two, or even three, and
others with two on the fore-feet and one on the
hind. It also appears that the same variation
occasionally takes place in the number of claws
on the feet of some of the land-Tortoises, and
particularly in those of the Greek or common
Tortoise, the more particular history of which I
shall now proceed to give in as few words as pos-
sible. In its native regions it is said to make its
first appearance in the month of February, and in
June lays its eggs in some snowy spot, having
first scratched a hole for their reception. The
young are hatched after the first rains in Sep-
SO LECTURE VII.
tember, and are about tl*e size of a walnut. The
general length of the shell, in the full-grownr
animal, is about six or eight inches, which latter
measure it very seldom exceeds : the shell is of an
extremely convex form, and is composed, as in
most other Tortoises, of thirteen middle divisions,
and about twenty-five marginal ones ; the general
colour is a blackish-brown, with broad and some-
what irregular blotches of pale yellow, varying in
different individuals : the head is rather small than
large ; the legs short, and the feet commonly fur-
nished with four strong claws on each; some-
times with five. This animal lives to a most extra-
ordinary age, several well attested examples being
adduced of its having considerably exceeded the
period of a century. One of the most remark^
able instances is that of a Tortoise introduced
into the archiepiscopal garden at Lambeth, in the
time of Archbishop Laud, and as near as can be
collected from its history, about the year 1633,
which continued to live there till the year 1753,
when it was supposed to have perished rather
from accidental neglect on the part of the gar-*
dener, than from the mere effect of age. Tins
LECTURE VII. 11
Tortoise has had the honour of being comme-
morated by Dei-ham*, and many other writers,
and its shell is preserved in the library of the
palace at Lambeth f.
The general manners of the Tortoise, in a
state of domestication in this country, are very
agreeably detailed by Mr. White, in his History
of Selbourn. " A Land Tortoise," says Mr.
White, " which has been kept thirty years in a
little walled court, retires under ground about
the middle of. November, and comes forth again
about the middle of April. When it first appears
in the spring, it discovers very little inclination for
food, but in the height of summer grows vora-
* In a copy of the work entitled Memoirs for the Natural
History oj Animals, from the French academy, and which was
once the property of Derham, the following MS. note occurs.
" I imagine Land-Tortoises, when arrived at a certain pitch,
cease growing. For that I saw, Aug. 11, 1712, in my lord arch-
bishop of Canterbury's garden, which had been there ever since
archbishop Juxon s time, and is accounted to be above 6O years
old, was of the same size I have seen others of, of larger size, and
much younger."
f This memorable Tortoise appears to have exceeded the usual
dimension*, of its species j the shell measuring ten inches in length.,,
and six and a half in breadth.
12 LECTURE VII.
cious; and then, as the summer declines, its appe-
tite declines; so that for the last weeks in autumn it
hardly eats at all. Milky plants, such as lettuces,
dandelions, sowthi sties, &c. are its principal food.
On the first of November, 1771, I remarked that
the Tortoise began to dig the ground, in order to
form its hybernaculum, which it had fixed on just
beside a great tuft of Hepaticas. It scrapes out
the ground with its fore feet, and throws it up
over its back with its hind, but the motion of its
legs is ridiculously slow, little exceeding the hour
hand of a clock. Nothing can be more assiduous
than this creature, night and day, in scooping
the earth, and forcing its great body into the ca-
vity; but as the noons of that season proved
unusually warm and sunny, it was continually
interrupted, and called forth by the heat in the
middle of the day, and though I continued there
till the thirteenth of November, yet the work re-
mained unfinished. Harsher weather, and frosty
mornings, would have quickened its operations.
No part of its behaviour ever struck me more
than the extreme timidity it always expresses
with regard to rain ; for though it has a shell
that would secure it against the wheel of a loaded
LECTURE VII. t3
cart, yet does it discover as much solicitude about
rain as a lady dressed in all her best attire,
shuffling away on the first sprinklings, and running
its head up in a corner. If attended to, it be-
comes an excellent weather-glass, for as sure as
it walks elate, and, as it were on tip-toe, feeding
with great earnestness, in a morning, so sure will
it rain before night. It is totally a diurnal ani-
mal, and never pretends to stir after it becomes
dark."
" The Tortoise," adds Mr. W. " like other
reptiles, has an arbitrary stomach, as well as
lungs, and can refrain from eating, as well as
breathing, for a great part of the year. I was
much taken with its sagacity, in discerning those
that do it kind offices 5 for as soon as the good
old lady comes in sight who has waited on it
for more than thirty years, it hobbles towards
its benefactress with awkward alacrity; but re-
mains inattentive to strangers. Thus, not only
" the Ox knaweth his ozvner, and the Ass his
master's crib" but the most abject and torpid of
beings distinguishes the hand that feeds it, and
is touched with the feelings of gratitude. This
creature not only goes under the earth from the
middle of November to the middle of April, but
14 LECTURE VII.
sleeps great part of the summer ; for it goes to
bed in the longest days at four in the afternoon,
and often does not stir in the morning till late.
Besides, it retires to rest for every shower, and
does not move at all in wet days. When one
reflects on the state of this strange being, it is
a matter of wonder that Providence should bestow
such a seeming waste of longevity on a reptile
that appears to relish it so little as to squander
away more than two thirds of its existence in
a joyless stupor, and be lost to all sensation for
months together in the profoundest of all slum-
bers ! Though he loves warm weather, he avoids
the hot sun; because his thick shell, when once
heated, would, as the poet says of solid armour,
< scald with safety.9 He therefore spends the more
sultry hours under the umbrella of a large cabbage-
leaf, or amidst the waving forests of an asparagus
bed. But as he avoids heat in the summer, so in
the decline of the year, he improves the faint
autumnal beams by getting within the reflection
of a fruit-tree wall ; and though he has never read
that planes inclining to the horizon receive a
greater share of warmth, he inclines his shell by
tilting it against the wall, to collect and admit
every feeble ray.1'
LECTURE VII. 15
The Tortoise seems more tenacious of the
vital principle than any other of the Amphibia.
Redi informs us, that in making some experiments
on vital motion, he, in the beginning of Novem-
ber, took a land tortoise, and made a large
opening in its skull, and drew out all the brain,
washing the cavity, so as to leave not the smallest
part remaining, and then, leaving the hole open,
set the animal at liberty. Notwithstanding this
treatment, the Tortoise marched away, without
seeming to have received the smallest injury: it
however closed its eyes, and never opened them
afterwards. In a short space the hole of the
skull was seen to close, and in about three days
there was a complete skin covering the wound;
and in this manner the animal lived, without the
brain, for six months, walking about, and moving
its limbs as before. Redi also cut off the head
of a Tortoise, which lived twenty-three days after-
wards ; and the head itself continued to snap the
jaws for more than a quarter of an hour after
its separation from the body. He repeated the
experiment of taking out the brain upon several
other Tortoises, both of land and fresh water;
all of which lived for a considerable space without
16 LECTURE VII.
the brain. He observed also, that having cut
off the heads of some, and opening the bodies
twelve days afterwards, the motion of the heart
was still perceptible ; so slowly is the vital prin-
ciple discharged from these inactive animals.
The most beautiful of all the Land Tortoises
is the T. Geometrica, or Geometrical Tortoise,
so named from the elegantly regular variegations
of its shell, which is very convex, and of a black
colour, with each piece marked by several bright
yellow stripes radiating from a common centre.
It is a native of many parts of Africa.
A species much allied to the geometrical,
but much larger, is what I have myself described
under the name of T. radiata or the Radiated
Tortoise. It measures more than a foot in length;
is extremely convex, and nearly smooth, whereas
the geometrica js remarkably tubercutated : the
pattern is still more elaborately disposed than
in the former, the rays or streaks being more
numerous. It is a native of Madagascar, and
as some say of America also.
The largest of all the Land-Tortoises is a
species now called the Indian Tortoise. T. In-
dica. It was first described by Mons. Perrault^
88
LECTURE VII. 17
m the accounts of animals published long ago
by the French Academy. It grows to the length
of four feet, and is entirely of a dull brown co-
lour without any variegations. It is one of the
numerous species confounded by the Count de
Cepede with the Common Tortoise or T. Grasca.
Of the river or fresh water Tortoises one of the
most remarkable is the T. Jerox or fierce Tor-
toise, a native of many parts of North America,
and first described by Mr. Pennant in the Philo-
sophical Transactions ; its shield or shell is hard
or bony only in the middle , the edges being soft
and flexible : its colour is brown above and white
beneath ; the head is small, with a long, pointed
snout, and a very long neck which is at pleasure
withdrawn into the shell : the feet are very widely
webbed. Unlike the rest of the tribe, it is an
animal of swift motion, and when disturbed,
springs forward with great fury to attack its as-
sailant : its usual length is from one to two feet ;
but it is sometimes found far larger. It feeds
on various water-animals as well as on vegetable
o
substances.
The Sea Tortoises, or Turtles as they are com-
monly called, are distinguished from the rest by
;LECT, u. c
18 LECTURE VII.
their very large and long fin-shaped feet, in which
are inclosed the bones of the toes ; the first and se-
cond alone on each foot being furnished with
visible or projecting claws; the rest not appearing
beyond the edge. The shield, as in the Land
Tortoises, consists of a strong bony covering, in
which are imbedded the ribs, and which is coated
externally with hard, horny plates -, in one or two
species much thicker than the horny covering
or epidermis of the land Tortoises. There is
however one species of Turtle, and that the
largest of all others, which instead of a strong
horny covering, has one of a leathery consistence,
marked over the whole surface into small angu-
lar subdivisions which do not take away from
the general smoothness of the whole : along the
whole upper part run five prominent ribs or lines,
while the under parts of the animal are bare,
or destitute of any lower shell, so that this animal
might form a distinct genus from the rest of the
Turtle tribe. Its colour is olive-brown, and its
size so great that it has been seen of the length
of eight feet, and of the weight of a thousand
pounds. It has been sometimes taken both on
the coast of France and England. It is found
LECTURE VII. 19
•in the Mediterranean and Atlantic seas, and about
some of the African coasts. A most magnificent
specimen taken on the English coasts is pre-
served in the Lever ian Museum.
The Green or Edible Turtle, which is the
T. Mydas of Linnaeus, grows also to a very large
size; often measuring more than five feet in
length, and weighing five or six hundred pounds.
Its colour is a dull palish brown, with a few
dusky variegations. The introduction of this
animal as an article of luxury into England is
of no very distant date, and can perhaps hardly
be traced much farther than about fifty or sixty
years backward. They are chiefly found about
the Bahama islands, and seem to feed chiefly
on marine vegetables, from which their fat ac-
quires the greenish colour which gives name to
the animal.
The T. Caret t a of Linnaeus or the Loggerhead
Turtle, is of at least equal size to the former,
and often superior: its colours are beautiful, hav-
ing a finely variegated shell, but the horny pieces
or divisions are too thin for the purposes of the
artificers in tortoise-shell, and are therefore neg-
lected in trade : as a species it may be distin-
20 LECTURE VII.
guished both from the green and the true tortoise^
shell turtle or Hawksbill by the more numerous
divisions of the shell, which amount to fifteen in-r
stead of thirteen, which is the constant number
in the rest. The Loggerhead Turtle is a very
strong and fierce animal, and is even dangerous -y
defending itself with great vigour with its legs,
and being able to break the strongest substances
with its mouth. Aldrovandus tells us that on
offering a thick walking-stick to one which he
saw publicly exhibited at Bologna, the animal
bit it in two in an instant.
The T. imbricata, the Hawksbill, or imbri-
cated Turtle, is the species which affords the ele-
gant substance commonly known by the name
of Tortoise-shell, and of which such innumerable
ornamental articles are prepared. This species
of Turtle is called the imbricated Turtle, from
the disposition of its scales, which lap over each
other at the tips in the manner of tiles on a
house, and by this particularity a? well as by the
number of its scales, which are always thirteen,
it may be distinguished from the Loggerhead
Turtle, in which the number is fifteen, The
shape of the bill also, which is sharper a.nd more
KjCATK'l) Tr KTLK
/.v///////,/ /. i •ttXt-w/.vI'kcC Street.
LECTURE Vir. 21
curved than in the Loggerhead Turtle, is another
mark of distinction. The colour is a beautiful
variegation of blackish brown and yellow, vary-
ing greatly in different individuals. This species
is a native of the Asiatic seas, but is also foundj
though much more rarely, in the Atlantic, and
even in the Mediterranean. Its general length
is about three feet, but sometimes it is found
much larger. The Greeks and Romans appear
to have been highly partial to the use of Tortoise-
shell as an ornamental article, decorating their
doors, the pillars of their houses, and their beds
with it. The great consumption of it at Rome
may be guessed at by what Velleius Paterculus
has related, who tells us that when the city of
Alexandria was taken by Julius Caesar, the ma-
gazines or warehouses were so full of this article,
that he proposed to have made it the principal
ornament of his triumph, as he did of ivory
afterwards, during his triumph after the African
tvar.
We now pass to the genus called Rana or Frog,
consisting of all the animals comprehended un-
der the general names of Frog and Toad. This
is a singularly curious race of animals, though
from prejudice often considered in an unfavourable
22 LECTURE VII.
light. The character of the genus is, that the
body is destitute of any particular covering ex-
cept the mere skin ; furnished with four feet, and
without any tail. The most familiar example
that can be given is the Common Frog, which is
the Rana temporaria of Linmeus, which is almost
every where seen in moist situations, where it
can command a sufficient quantity of insects and
small worms, which are its favourite food. As
a species the Common Frog is distinguished by
its yellowish-brown colour, spotted with black,
and by a lengthened brown patch or streak be*
neath each eye. It often however varies in co-
lour, running through all the shades of olive, and
sometimes even of reddish brown. The form of
the common Frog is light and elegant ; the limbs
finely calculated for the peculiar motions of the-
animal, and the hind feet strongly webbed, to
assist its progress in the water, to which it oc-
casionally retires during the heats of summer, and
again during the frosts of winter, when it lies in a
state of torpidity either phinged in the soft mud
at the bottom of stagnant waters, or in the hol-
lows beneath their banks, till it is awakened from
its slumbers by the return of Spring. In the
month of March it deposits its eggs,, in large
LECTURE VII. 23
groupes or clustered masses; each egg being of
a gelatinous substance, perfectly transparent, and
containing the young animal in its centre under
the form of a round black globule. In the space
of about a month the globule assumes an oval
shape, and soon after hatches ; not in the form of
a complete Frog but of what is termed a tad-
pole, and appearing, on a general view, to con-
sist merely of head and tail; the former black
and large, the latter slender, and bordered with
a transparent finny margin. The motions of the
tadpoles are very lively, and in the advanced state
of Spring are so plentiful that the waters they
inhabit appear blackened by their numbers. They
live on the leaves of the plant called duckweed
and on other small vegetable substances: during
the early part of their growth they are furnished
on each side the head with a pair of ramified
breathing organs, which drop off when they are
farther advanced in age; and when they have
arrived at the ag€ of five or six weeks, the hind-
legs make their appearance, and soon afterwards
the fore-legs. Some time after this the tail begins
to decrease, and at length becomes quite obli-
terated. The animal now ventures upon land,
24 LECTURE Vir.
and no longer feeds on vegetable but on animal
food, preying on the smaller kind of insects and
worms. It does not arrive at its full size till at
least five years old, and is supposed to live about
fifteen.
The Frog which is so frequently eaten in
many parts of the Continent is a different species,
rather larger and of a greener colour, spotted
with black, and with two pale yellow lines down
the back. Those however who collect the Frogs
for the purpose of the table are known not to be
very scrupulous in their choice, and it is acknow-
ledged that not only Common Frogs but even
Toads also are often intermixed with the green
ones.
Such animals of this genus as are of a heavier
or thicker form than the rest, with shorter limbs,
and which rather crawl than spring, are called
Toads. Of these the Rana Biifo or Common
Toad is the principal European species. Its
changes are similar to those of the Frog, but
the eggs from which its tadpoles proceed are not
deposited in the form of clustered heaps, but in
that of long double strings, bearing the appear
ance of so many necklaces. The Common Toad
LECTURE VII. 25
Is a perfectly innocent animal, and the tales re-
lative to its supposed venom are now pretty well
exploded. There are however some exotic spe-
cies of Toad, which exsude a highly acrimonious
and offensive moisture from their skin, and which
is said to be of a corrosive or hurtful nature.
In South-America is produced a highly sin-
gular species of Toad, called the Pipa or Toad of
Surinam. It is of large size, with a flattened and
somewhat triangular head, and with all the toes
of the fore-feet regularly divided into four parts
at the tip; the hind-feet being widely webbed.
The young are produced, not in the usual man-
ner, but from numerous cells on the back of the
animal. It appears however on accurate exa-
mination, that even there they have undergone
the general change from the tadpole to the com-
plete animal, several having been observed in the
form of tadpoles in the cells themselves.
Before we leave the Frog tribe we should par-
ticularize what has been sometimes called the
Frog-Fish of Surinam, and which was once sup-
posed to change from a Frog to a Fish. It is
no other than the Tadpole or first state of a spe-
cies of South-American Frog, which, when first
26 LECTURE VII.
arrived at its state of perfection, appears less than
the Tadpole from which it was gradually formed,
Nor is this peculiar to the Surinam Frog or Rana
paradoxa, but takes place in some of the Euro-
pean animals of this genus, which are rather larger
in the tadpole state than when first arrived at their
perfect form, as in the species called the R. al-
liacea or alliaceous Toad, a native of Germany,
and some other parts of Europe.
To the Frogs succeed the Lizard tribe, con-
stituting the Linnasan genus Lacerta, and dis^
tinguished by having a lengthened body, four
feet, and a tail. The Lizard tribe is extremely
numerous, and contains many animals of vast
size, as the Crocodiles and Alligators ; and others
very small, as the common Newts. For the con-
venience of zoological students the genus may be
divided into assortments arranged according to
the habit or general appearance of the species*
First the Crocodiles, distinguished by very large
and strong scales. The Guanas, commonly fur-
nished with a serrated process along the back,
and often by a pouch or flap under the throat.
The Cordyles, with serrated or toothed scales.
The Lizards emphatically so called, with smooth
LECTURE VII. 27
bodies, and square plates beneath. The Cha-
meleons, with granulated skin, a large head, long
extensile tongue, and long cylindric tail. Geckos,
with granulated skin, scattered over with tuber-
cles, and lobated feet. Skinks, with a very smooth,
skin, and large fish-like scales. Salamanders or
Newts, with soft skins, and which generally in-
habit the water. And lastly the long or snake-
shaped Lizards, with extremely short legs and.
very minute feet.
Of this vast tribe of animals those termed Cro-
codiles have in all ages been regarded as some-
of the most formidable animals of the warmer re-
gions. They inhabit Asia and Africa, but seem
to be most common in the latter, where they
reside in large rivers, as the Nile and the Nigeiv
preying chiefly on fish, but occasionally seizing
on almost every animal which happens to be ex-
posed to their rapacity. Their size is prodigious,
specimens being often seen of twenty feet in
length, and we have accounts of some which ex-
ceeded thirty feet. The general colour of the
Common Crocodile, when arrived at full growth,
is blackish olive above and yellowish white be-
neath. The armour with which the body is co-
28 LECTURE VII.
vered may be numbered among the most elaborate
pieces of Nature's mechanism : it is so strong as
easily to repel a musket ball; but on the under
parts of the body it is much weaker or thinner.
The Crocodile is produced from an egg scarcely
larger than that of a goose, and covered with a
strong calcarious shell, like that of a bird. Of
these eggs the female deposits a numerous brood
in the sand, and the young, when hatched, imme-
diately betake themselves to the water.
The Indian or Gangetic Crocodile is of at
least equal size with the Nilotic, and is distin-
guished by its very long and narrow snout, and
by having teeth almost double the number of those
of the Nilotic species.
The Alligator or American Crocodile is more
nearly allied to the Nilotic, but is supposed to be
distinguished by two rising lines or crests along
the upper part of the tail.
The Ceylonese Crocodile much resembles
these, but has every scale on the upper parts fur-
nished with a flat crest or elevation. Besides
these species, two or three others may be pretty
distinctly traced in the works of naturalists,
though their precise specific characters cannot be
LECTURE VII. 29
accurately investigated. The common Crocodile
has heen supposed by the ancients to move the
upper jaw: this the most accurate of the modern
observers have given up as a mistaken doctrine ;
but a naturalist of the French school, Monsieur
Geoffroy, has lately revived- the ancient doctrine,
and contends that this circumstance really takes
place in the Nilotic Crocodile.
As farther examples of the Lizard tribe I shall
only mention the Chameleons and the Salamanders
or Water-Newts, The common Chamagleon, a
native of many of the warmer parts of the world,
and particularly of Africa, has long been cele-
brated for its supposed power of changing its co^
lour at pleasure according to the object on which
it is placed. This is a vulgar error ; but it is true
that the animal does every now and then change
its colour in a surprising manner, from some par-
ticular causes not well understood. The general
colour of the animal is a greyish or blueish green -y
and this often becomes, in the space of a few mo-
ments, variegated with spots and patches of red,
brown, yellow, and other shades. The size of the
full-grown Chamseleon is sometimes nearly a foot,
exclusive of the tail; which is at least of equal
J50 LECTURE VII.
length. The eyes are large and globular, with a
very small opening in the skin, so that the ball of
the eye can only be seen externally: the animal
can direct one eye upwards and the other down-
wards at pleasure, so great is its command over
these organs. The tongue is extremely long, ex-
tensile at pleasure, like that of a Woodpecker,
and furnished at the end with a broad glutinous
tip. With this it catches insects, darting the tongue
upon them, and suddenly retracting it, like the
quadrupeds of the genera of Manis and Myrme-
cophaga. The Chameleon can support a very long
abstinence, and will even bear to be confined
many weeks together without any visible food,
and hence the old notion of its living on air. The
best figure of the Chamaeleon is that given in
Mr. Miller's miscellaneous plates of Natural
History.
There are two or three other species of Cha-
meleon which have only been fully described of
late years.
I proceed to the last division of the Lizards,
containing the Salamanders, or Water-Newts. In
their whole economy these Lizards are strongly
allied to Frogs, inhabiting the water, and pro-
LECTURE VII. 31
ceeding from soft gelatinous eggs or spawn. The
young, when first hatched, are furnished on each
side the breast with a pair of ramified breathing-
organs, which are obliterated when the animal is
full-grown. The common Salamander, so famous
for the old vulgar error which relates to its sup-
posed power of living in the fire, is a beautiful
animal of about eight or nine inches in length,
and of a black colour, with large, irregular, deep-
yellow spots and patches. It is a native of many
parts of Germany in particular, and occasionally
appears either on land or in water : on the upper
part of the body it is furnished with a great many
large pores, from which, on any irritation a whit-
ish watery fluid exsudes, and this has given rise
to the popular, superstition of its being able to
quench any fire into which it can be thrown.
The larger English-Newt or L. palustris of
Limueus much resembles it, but is smaller, and of
a brown colour, with minute white specks, and
varied with black and yellow beneath.
The common or smaller- Newt, the L, aquatica
of Linnasus, is an inhabitant of every stagnant
water, and is a very elegant animal, of a yellow-
ish olive-brown colour, with numerous round black
tf2 LECTURE VJL
spots ; the under parts bright orange with larger
and more irregular black spots. The male of this
species is distinguished by a rising crest along the
back, and by its broad finny tail, ending in a
sharpened point. It is one of the most conve-
nient subjects for exhibiting a general view of the
circulation of the blood by the microscope.
Having thus given a general survey of the
Lizards, I shall mention an animal of a somewhat
dubious cast, and which has for many years been
known to naturalists under the name of the Siren.
It was first discovered by the late ingenious Dr,
Garden, of Charlestown in South Carolina, who
not being able to refer it to any known animal,
sent a specimen to Linnaeus for his opinion. Lin-
paeus was so struck by the singularity of its ap-
pearance and its characters, that he instituted for
H a new order of the amphibia under the title of
Meantes. The Siren of Carolina has the general
appearance of an Eel, as to size, but has on each
side the neck a pair of ramified breathing-organs
or branchiae, resembling those of water lizards in
their imperfect state : it has also two feet only,
which are furnished with small claws. Some have
been inclined to suppose this animal no other
0
Q
<
-
LECTURE VII. 33
than the larva or unadvanced state of some hi-
therto unknown species of Lizard; while others
suppose it to be a truly perfect animal, and to
constitute very properly a distinct genus. The
celebrated Camper having from some mistake
supposed it to be without lungs, referred it to the
genus Murrena or Eel, considering it as a species
of Eel differing from the rest in having ramified
fins.
A second species of Siren is a native of Europe,
and is only found in the celebrated lake called
Lake Circnitz or Zitticher sea, in the dutchy of Car-
niola. It is somewhat more than afoot in length,
and entirely of a pale rose-colour.
Other species of an equally dubious or uncer-
tain cast have been discovered in different parts of
the world, some of which are perhaps really the
larvae, or young of Lizards, while others seem truly
to constitute a distinct genus like those I have just
described.
Another very singular animal, which Linnaeus
considers as a distinct genus, is the Draco or
Dragon, otherwise called the Flying-Lizard. It is
a small Lizard with a very long tail, and with a
wide expanded skin on each side the body, sup-
LECT. II. D
34 LECTURE Vll.
ported by internal ribs, and by the help of which
it flies or flutters. It is a perfectly innocent animal,
and is found in many parts of Asia and Africa. Its
natural colour is a fine blueish grey, with darker
variegations, and the wings are elegantly spotted
towards their edges with black and white varie-
gations. The animal is the Draco volans of Lin-
naeus. Another species has been described by
some, differing from the present in having the
fore-legs joined to the upper part of the wings.
I shall proceed to take a very short survey of
the Serpent tribe, constituting the last order of
the Linnsean amphibia. The Serpents, in a ge-
neral view, are readily distinguished from the rest
by their total want of feet ; moving by the assist-
ance of their scales, and their general powers of
contorsion. In the serpents the distinction of
the species is often very difficult, the animals often
varying greatly in colours according to the dif-
ferent stages of their growth. Linnseus imagined
that he had discovered an infallible method of as-
certaining the species, viz. from the number of
scaly plates on the lower parts of the animal in
the different genera; but experience has suffi-
ciently proved this method to be erroneous, and
LECTURE VII. 35
the general pattern or disposition of the colours is
perhaps a more certain criterion, though confessed
to be liable to alteration.
One of the most singular properties of the
Serpent tribe is that of casting their skin from
time to time. When this operation takes place,
so complete is the spoil or cast-skin that even the
external coat of the eyes themselves makes a part
of it. The distinction of Serpents into poisonous
and innoxious can only be known by an accurate
inspection of the teeth; the fangs or poisonous
teeth being always of a tubular structure, and fur-
nished with a small hole or slit near the tip : they
are rooted into a particular bone, so jointed to
the remainder of the jaw on each side, as to
permit the fangs or poisoning teeth to be raised
or depressed at the pleasure of the animal. Above
the root of each is a glandular reservoir of poison,
which in the act of biting is pressed into the
tube of the tooth, and discharged into the wound
through the hole near the tip. The fangs are ge-
nerally single on each side ; sometimes double or
treble, and in general there are small or young
fangs situated at the base of the larger ones, ready
to grow up and supply their place when lost by
36 LECTURE VII.
accidental violence. But poisonous Serpents may
often be at least guessed at, though not demon-
strated, from the habit or general appearance of
the animal, most of the venomous Serpents having
rather large heads, covered with small scales,
whereas those 'which are innocent have the head
generally covered with large scaly plates ; but on
the other hand some highly venomous Serpents
have the head covered with large scales also ; so
that no absolute mark of distinction can be found
except the fangs. In general it may be said that
innocent Serpents have four rows of teeth in the
upper jaw ; two on the palate and the rest on each
side; but that poisonous Serpents have no other
outward or side- teeth but the fangs.
The genera or particular sets of Serpents esta-
blished by some modern naturalists are pretty nu-
merous, and even unnecessarily so. Linnaeus on
the contrary established but few. His first genus
is that of Crotalus or Rattle Snake. Its character
is that beneath the body are broad scaly semi-
circular transverse plates or shields ; the same, to-
gether with some divided shields beneath the tail,
and the tail itself terminated by a rattle, composed
of many dry horny flattish organs of a peculiar
LECTURE VII. 37
shape, growing over each other, and so consti-
tuted as to give a strong rattling sound when the
animal shakes them, which it never fails to do
when irritated or disturbed, and may thus be said
to warn other animals of their danger in making
too near an approach. The common Rattle-Snake
(for there are several different species) is naturally
a slow-moving animal, and therefore all the tales
that are told of its darting with the rapidity of
lightning about its native woods and plains, must
be considered as mere imaginary description. The
Count cle Cepede in his history of the Rattle-
Snake commences with a Buffonian flourish of this
kind, and assures us that " the traveller wandering
in the midst of the burning solitudes of Africa,
and fainting under the midday heat, feels not a
more thrilling horror on hearing at a distance the
tremendous voice of the Tyger roaring for his prey,
than he who passing through the moist forests of
the new world experiences, when in the midst of
beauty and fragrance he is on a sudden surprized
by the sound of the Rattle-Snake, ready to dart
upon him in order to destroy him." The Rattle-
Snake on the contrary, according to the united
testimony of all real observers, never attacks or
38 LECTURE VII.
moves towards a person who approaches him, but
always endeavours to escape, and never bites un-
less accidentally trodden on or purposely irritated.
The colour of the Rattle-Snake is brown with yel-
low variegations ; in one species these are in the
form of bars, and in another in the form of Lo-
zenge-shaped streaks : it grows to the length of
some feet. Its bite is certainly one of the most
dangerous of the whole Serpent tribe; but its
effect, like that of every other poisonous Serpent,
must vary extremely according to the state of
health of the person receiving the wound, as well
as of the part on which the wound has been in-
flicted : if it happens on a large vein, it very
soon proves fatal : if not, it is often curable. We
have well attested accounts of a dog's having been
killed in less than two minutes by the bite of a
Rattle-Snake*.
The next Linnasan genus of Snakes is called
Boa, and is distinguished by having broad scaly
transverse plates both beneath the body and tail,
* The fascination of the R. Snake is now pretty generally
referred either to the mere effects of fear, or to the supposed fas-
cinated animals having been first in reality bitten and disabled
from making their escape.
LECTURE VII. 39
but without any rattle. Very few of this genus
are poisonous, but some of them are remarkable
for their enormous size; in particular a species
found in Africa and called the Boa Constrictor,
which grows to the length of thirty-five feet, and
is said to destroy even Deer and Antelopes, by
writhing itself round their bodies, so as to break
or crush their bones, and then swallowing them
very gradually, for all Serpents are capable, from
the particular organization of their jaws, of swal-
lowing animals of much greater diameter than
their own bodies.
This is supposed to be the species which ter-
rified the army of Regulus near the river Bagrada
in Africa, and which is said to have measured 120
feet in length. This perhaps was an exaggera-
tion. In the British Museum is a skin measuring
thirty-five feet, and it is probable that many ages
ago much larger specimens might have occurred
than any at present to be found, the increased po-
pulation and cultivation of most countries having
tended more and more to lessen the number of
such animals. Some of the Boae are .remarkable
for the elegance of their colours and the beautiful
.disposition of their pattern.
40 LECTURE VH.
The most numerous of all the Linnsean ge-
nera of Serpents is that of Coluber. It contains a
mixture of poisonous and harmless Snakes : and
is distinguished by having the under part of the
body as far as the tail furnished with broad undi-
vided plates, while the under part of the tail is
covered with divided ones. Of the poisonous
animals of the genus Coluber, one of the most
remarkable is the C. Naja or Cobra .de Capello,
a native of many parts of India, and not less poi-
sonous than the Rattle-Snake in America; its co-
lour is commonly a dull yellow, and it has the
power, when irritated, of dilating to a great extent
the skin of the neck, into the form of a large flat-
tened oval ; this part is marked above by a very
large patch resembling a pair of spectacles., and
of a black colour edged with white. There ap-
pear to be many varieties of this Snake in India*.
Among the innocent species of Coluber the
common English Snake may be mentioned as
an example ; .a perfectly inoffensive animal, and
which may even be tamed and rendered do-
mestic.
* The common Viper is the only poisonous Snake of this
genus in our own country.
99
LECTURE VII. 4i
The genus Anguis is distinguished by being
uniformly covered with scales of a similar form in
all parts, and commonly with very small scales.
The common English Slowworm, the Anguis Fra-
gilis of -Linnaeus, is an example of this genus,
and is perfectly innocent, though vulgar prejudice
still imagines its bite to be fatal, Many of the
Indian and American Serpents of this genus are
highly beautiful animals.
The genus called Amphisbcena is distinguished
by having the body surrounded by complete rings
of small square scales. The species are very few,
and are perfectly innocent.
Lastly the genus Cacilia is characterized by
being only marked along the sides by a kind of
semicircular wrinkles. These Serpents are also
innocent.
I have before observed that the genera of Ser-
pents have been lately increased by the formation
of some new ones. Of these I shall only mention
the genus Hydrus or Water-Snake, a true and
proper genus, and easily distinguished by the
flattened form of the tail, which is in some species
compressed vertically ; in others horizontally. In
point of general appearance these Snakes resemble
42 LECTURE VII.
the genus Anguis. They are all natives of the
waters, and are mostly found about the coasts of
the southern islands and those of India and the
Indian islands. Some species are poisonous,
being furnished with tubular fangs, and others are
harmless.
LECTURE VIII.
JL HE course of our Zoological investigations has
now led us to a very extensive tribe of Animals,
distinguished by the title of Fishes. Like the
Amphibious animals their heart, in the language
of anatomists, is unilocular, or consists but of one
chief cavity, and their blood is far less warm than
that of the higher order of animals, as quadrupeds
and birds : the red particles of their blood are also
of an oval shape. The organs of breathing in
Fishes, analogous to the lungs in quadrupeds and
birds, are distinguished by the name of gills, and
consist of a vast number of ramifications of blood-
vessels, curiously disposed in rows, and supported
on a certain number of bony arches, generally
four, on each side the breast. By the gills the
air contained in the waters they inhabit, is sup-
posed to afford oxigen to the blood in its passage
through the very delicate ramifications of the
blood-vessels on the gills 3 so that the same pro*
4* LECTURE VIII.
cess of nature which in the higher orders of ani-
mals takes place in the internal cavity of the
lungs, is brought about in Fishes externally by
means of the subdivided branchings of the gills.
These important organs the gills, are secured ex-
ternally by a strong bony flap on each side, called
the gill-cover, and which is generally edged with
a thin membrane, capable of extension or con-
traction by means of a certain number of elastic
arches with which it is internally furnished. The
form of the body varies greatly in the different
tribes : it must be almost unnecessary to add, that
the most common or general shape is that of an
oval, more or less contracted or sharpened at each
extremity, and slightly compressed on each side.
There is one tribe or order of Fishes in which the
gills differ in their structure from the rest, and in
some particular kinds have an appearance ap-
proaching to that of a kind of hollow lungs, while
in others, certain organs situated near the gills
bear an appearance resembling lungs, and these
particularities of structure so much influenced the
mind of Linnreus, that he placed most of the
Fishes of this particular tribe, or what are gener-
ally termed the Cartilaginous Fishes, among the
LECTURE VIII. 45
Amphibia ; imagining them to be possessed of a
kind of real lungs as well as of gills.
The more accurate researches of modern natu-
ralists have proved the mistake, and sufficiently
explained its causes, and such Fishes are again
remanded to their proper situation.
The generality of Fishes are covered with
scales, of very various form and size in the differ-
ent tribes, and even many fishes which are popu-
larly supposed to be perfectly destitute of scales,
are found, on an accurate inspection, to be fur-
nished with them, as the common Eel, for ex-
ample. The scales in Fishes are to be considered
as analogous to the hair, or spines, or scales in the
different kinds of quadrupeds, as well as to the
feathers of birds, the animal matter of which
they consist being nearly the same in all.
The chief instruments of motion in Fishes are
the fins, which may be considered as analogous to
the limbs in quadrupeds : they consist of a certain
number of elastic rays or processes, either of one
single piece, in the form of a spine, or of jointed
and subdivided pieces, ramifying towards the ex-
tremity : the strong or spiny rays are usually
placed at the fore-part of the fin, and the soft or
46 LECTURE VIII.
jointed rays towards the back-part. By the
various flexure therefore of these organs, the
movements of Fishes are conducted ; the perpen-
dicular fins, situated on the back or upper part of
the animal, keeping the body in equilibrio, while
the tail, which is also perpendicular in its direc-
tion, and capable of various flexures and contrac-
tions, operates as a rudder at the stern of a vessel,
and the side or breast-fins as oars.
With respect to the internal parts of Fishes,
it is observed that the throat is short; the stomach
large, and the intestines far shorter than in qua-
drupeds and birds: the liver very large, and
usually placed on the left side. In the majority of
Fishes occurs under various shapes, a highly cu-
rious and important organ called the air-bladder
or swimming-bladder : it generally lies close be-
neath the back-bone, and is provided with a very
strong muscular coat, which gives it the power of
contracting at the pleasure of the Fish, so as to
condense the contained gas or elastic air with
which it is filled, and thus enable the animal to
descend to any depth, and again to ascend by
being restored to its largest size. In some Fishes
it is found to communicate with the throat j in
LECTURE VIII. 47
others with the stomach^ Some Fishes are totally
destitute of the air-bladder, and such Fishes are
observed to remain always at the bottom ; as the
whole tribe of what are termed fiat-Fish. If in
such Fishes as are provided with an air-bladder,
that organ be punctured, so as to let out its con-
tained gas or particular aerial fluid, the Fish is
unable to rise afterwards, but is obliged to remain
continually at the bottom*.
The teeth in Fish are extremely various in the
different tribes, in some very large and strong,
in others very small ; in some sharp, in others
obtuse ; in some very numerous, and in others
very few. Sometimes they are placed in the jaws,
sometimes in the palate or the tongue, or even at
the entrance of the stomach. The eyes are in
general large, and very much flattened, or far
less convex than in quadrupeds and birds ; this
structure being better calculated for giving them
an easy passage through the water they inhabit :
in return, the central part of the eye, or what is
* It is observed by Cuvier, that some Fishes having remained
for a considerable time near the surface of the water, under a
hot Sun, have had their air-bladder so dilated by the heat com-
municated to its contained gas, as to be unable suddenly to com-
press it sufficiently to permit themselves ta descend.
48 LECTURE VIII.
called the crystalline humour, is of a round or glo-
bular shape, in order to give the animal the ne-
cessary power of vision, and to compensate for
the comparative flatness of the cornea.
The organ of smelling in fishes is large, and
the animals have the power of contracting or di-
lating the passage to it at pleasure. Their smell
is supposed to be extremely acute.
It was formerly much doubted whether fishes
possessed the sense of hearing, having no external
ear : the accurate researches of modern anatomists
have however clearly evinced that the organ of
hearing, though differing in some particulars from
that of other animals, does yet exist ; and is only
modified according to the different nature of the
animals. Indeed although the nature of the organ
of hearing in fishes was not accurately known to the
older anatomists, yet it was plain that fishes did
hear ; as was evident from a practice common
in many parts of Europe of calling Carp and other
fishes to their feeding-place by the sound of a
bell; a signal which the animals readily obey.
The particular structure of the Ear in fishes may
be found amply explained in the works of Monro,
.Cuvier, Camper, and other modern anatomists.
Of voice, properly so called, fishes are en-
LECTURE VIII. 49
tirely destitute, the particular kind of stridulous
sound which some kinds are observed to produce
on being first taken out of the water, being en-
tirely owing to the sudden expulsion of air from
their internal cavities, as in the Gurnards or Pi-
pers, and some other fishes.
By far the greater number of fishes are ovipa-
rous, producing soft eggs, usually known by the
name of spawn. Some fishes are however vivi-
parous, the eggs first hatching internally. Fishes
may certainly be considered as the most prolific
of all animals : many millions often proceeding
from a single individual. The gradual evolution
of the young from the egg is highly curious. In
the spawn of the Barbel and some others, which
usually hatches in the space of about nine or ten
days, on the second day may be perceived in each
egg a small dusky speck between the white and
the yolk : on the third day the motion or pulsa-
tion of the heart becomes visible, and the body
may be perceived, adhering laterally to the yolk:
on the 6th day the back-bone and ribs are percep-
tible ; on the 7th day the eyes ; and the animal
begins to move itself briskly from time to time,
till at length, on the 9th or 10th day it bursts from
LECT. ir. E
50 LECTURE VIII.
its confinement. During the first six or eight
hours from its birth, it is observed to grow
nearly as much in proportion as in fifteen or
twenty days afterwards. In the young ani-
mal before it has left the egg, the pulsations or
beatings of the heart amount to about forty in
a minute; but immediately after hatching, they
are increased to the number of sixty in a minute.
Young fish, in this very diminutive state, are so
transparent as to exhibit with great distinctness
the course even of their larger blood-vessels. In
the work of Dr. Bloch we find a good representa-
tion of a fish in this state, viz,, the Common
Barbel.
The age of fish is, according to Linnaeus,
determinable from the number of concentric cir-
cles of the vertebrae or joints of the back-bone, in
the same manner as that of trees is supposed to
be from the concentric circles of the wood. Leew-
enhoeck used to imagine that the age of fish might
be determined from the concentric circles or
fibres of the scales; but perhaps it may admit of
much doubt whether either of these opinions be
true.
After this general survey of fishes as a tribe,,
LECTURE VIII. 51
I shall proceed to give a view of the Linnaean
arrangement of the different kinds of Fishes. In
order to understand this we must observe that
the under or belly fins, called by Linnaeus the
ventral fins, are to be considered as analogous to
the feet in quadrupeds ; and it is from the si-
tuation, presence or absence of these fins that the
Linnasan divisions of fishes are instituted.
Such fishes as are entirely destitute of ventral
fins are termed apodal or footless fishes, and
these form the first Linnaean order. Those which
have the ventral or belly-fins placed more forward
than the pectoral or breast-fins, are termed ju-
gular fishes, and form the second Linnaean di-
vision. Those which have the ventral fins situated
directly or immediately beneath the breast fins
are called thoracic fishes, and constitute the third
Linnaean division ; and lastly those which have
the ventral fins situated beyond or behind the
breast or pectoral fins are termed abdominal
fishes, and form the fourth Linnsean division.
There still remains a particular tribe called
cartilaginous fishes. This is the tribe which Lin-
naeus improperly admitted among his amphibia, on
a supposition of their being furnished with lungs
52 LECTURE VIII.
as well as with branchiae or ramified gills. This
division differs from all the rest of the fish tribe in
having a cartilaginous instead of a bony skeleton,
and in being destitute of ribs. It consists of the
Lampreys, the Rays, the Sharks and a variety of
other fishes, and will be particularized after our
survey of the Linnsean fishes, or such as have a
bony skeleton, furnished with ribs.
In passing through these I shall select a genus
or two of each division as an example, and parti-
cularize a few of the leading or principal species.
Of the first division or the apodal or footless
fishes, in which the ventral or belly fins are want-
ing, the genus Murcena or Eel is one of the princi-
pal. The Eels are distinguished by their long
clyindric smooth body with a shallow back-fin,
uniting with that of the tail into a continued hor-
de!*; tubular nostrils, and eyes covered by the
common or general skin, which is transparent in
those parts. The Common Eel, which is so well
known as scarcely to require a particular descrip-
tion, is a very general inhabitant of almost all parts
of the ancient continent, varying in size and co-
lours according to the nature of the waters in
which it is found. I have before observed that it
LECTURE VIII. , 53
is vulgarly reputed a scaleless fish, but though the
scales on a general view are not conspicuous, on
account of the slime with which they are covered,
yet when the skin is well wiped and dried they
are easily visible, and are of a lengthened oval
form, of a whitish colour, and exhibit a very elegant
texture when examined by the microscope. They
have long ago been well described and figured in
the works of the celebrated Leewenhoeck.
The Conger or Sea-Eel (Muraena Conger of
Linnaeus) so much resembles the Eel in its general
appearance that it has often been considered ra-
ther as a variety than truly distinct. It is however
of a much larger size, of a blacker or darker co-
lour, and is commonly marked along the sides by
a row of white specks. It is likewise an inhabit-
ant of the sea, and is only an occasional visitant
of fresh waters. Both the Eel and the Conger are
viviparous ; producing their young, which are very
numerous during the decline of summer. The
young are at first very small.
A very celebrated species of this genus is the
Murasna of the ancient Romans, who considered it
as one of the most luxurious articles of the table,
and sometimes kept it in reservoirs, where it was
54 LECTURE VIIL
occasionally tamed to such a degree as to come at
the signal of its master in order to receive its food.
Its size is at least equal, if not superior to that of
the Common Eel, and its colour a dusky greenish
brown, pretty thickly variegated on all parts with
somewhat angular marks and patches of dull yel-
low, which are scattered over with dusky specks.
I almost hesitate to relate the disgusting instance
of barbarous cruelty practised, according to Pliny,
by a Roman of distinction of the name of Vedius
Pollio, who was in the habit of causing such of his
slaves as had offended him to be thrown into his
reservoirs in order to feed his Muraenae, expressing
a savage delight in thus being able to taste in an
improved state their altered remains. The Empe-
ror Augustus honoured this man with his presence
at one of his entertainments ; when a young slave
happening to break a crystal goblet, was imme-
diately ordered to be thrown to the Muraenae.
The boy however, flying to the feet of the Em-
peror and explaining the secret, Augustus was so
shocked at this instance of cruelty, that he im«
mediately ordered all the crystal vessels in the
house to be broken before his face, and the ponds
of the owner to be filled up ; giving the boy his
JOJ
LECTURE VIII. 55
freedom, and bestowing an unmerited pardon on
the offender ; sparing his life in consideration of
former friendship. This story has been so often
related that it cannot be supposed to be impressive
to many from its novelty, but many authors make
a mistake as to the Fish, which instead of a Mu-
raena they erroneously suppose to be a Lamprey,
The Eels strictly speaking, are furnished with pec-
toral or breast-fins ; but the Mur^enae have none.
Authors therefore who are partial to a highly
precise division of the genera of fishes, instead of
comprehending the Eels and the Mur cense under
the common title of Murcena, as Linnaeus has
done, divide them into distinct genera under the
titles of Murcena, Anguilla, Synbranchus, and some
others; all agreeing in general form, but dis-
tinguished from each other by the absence or pre-
sence of breast-fins and some other circumstances.
A more remarkable genus of apodal or foot-
less fishes is that of Gynmotus, which is distin-
guished by a lengthened body, without any back-
fin, but furnished with one beneath, running along
almost from extent or length of the animal. The
principal species is the Gymnotus electricus or Elec-
trical Gymnotus, sometimes improperly termed the
.56 LECTURE VIII.
Electric Eel. It is an animal of an unpleasant ap-
pearance, bearing a general resemblance to a very
large Eel, but thicker in proportion, and is gene-
rally of a very dark blackish brown colour. The
length of such specimens as have been brought
into Europe have hardly exceeded three or four
feet, but in its native regions of South-America,
and particularly in the river Surinam in the pro-
vince of that name, it is said to arrive at the
length of seven, ten, or even fifteen feet. It was
first made known to the Philosophers of Europe
about the year 1671, when its wonderful proper-
ties were described to the French academy by a
Dr. Richer, one of those sent out by the academy
to conduct some mathematical observations at
Cayenne. The fish possesses the highest possible
degree of natural electricity or galvanism, so that
when touched it communicates a very powerful
electric shock; so powerful indeed that it is
affirmed to be sometimes fatal to incautious
swimmers who happen to encounter it in its na-
tive waters. By this electric power it supports
its life ; suddenly stupifying such smaller fishes or
other animals on which it preys, and then devour-
ing them. To those who may wish for a more
JO?
LECTURE VIII. 57
ample detail both of the animal itself and its
^ordinary powers, I must recommend the de-
scription by Dr. Garden in the Philosophical
Transactions, and the highly accurate anatomical
survey of the animal by the late Mr. John Hun-
ter in the same work.
After these examples of the first tribe or apo-
dal fishes, I shall proceed to those which Linnaeus
terms Jugular, as having the ventral or belly-
fins placed before the pectoral or breast-fins.
Of this division the genus called Trachinus9
or Weever, may afford an example. It is charac-
terized by having a compressed body, the gill-
covers serrated or toothed on their edges, and
terminated by a spine; and a small fin situated on
the top of the back, almost immediately beyond
the head. The most common species or T. Druco,
of Linnaeus is a native of the European seas, and
is sufficiently common about our own coasts. It
usually measures about a foot in length, and is of
a yellowish silvery colour ; with the small or first
back-fin before mentioned of a black colour, and
furnished with four or live strong spines or rays.
With this fin it wounds such as attempt to seize
it, by suddenly throwing itself back, and infix-
58 LECTURE VIII.
ing the spines of its fin ; and so painful is the
wound, that a general belief still prevails of its
being accompanied by a kind of poison ; but it
is certain that the spines of the fin are not tubular,
nor is any fish known to contain any real or pro-
per poisonous fluid ; though several become poi-
sonous by feeding on acrimonious substances, and
being eaten without proper precautions.
To the jugular fishes belongs a numerous
genus entitled Gadus or Codfish, containing not
only the Common Codfish, but the Haddock, the
Ling, the Burbot, and a great variety of others.
The chief character of this genus is that the ven-
tral fins are slender, and terminate in a point,
and that the back- fins are two or three in number.
The Common Codfish is a native of the northern
seas, where it resides in immense shoals, and
performs various migrations at stated seasons, vi-
siting in succession the different coasts both of
Europe and America. The chief fishery is about
the sand-banks of Newfoundland, which are de-
scribed as constituting a vast submarine mountain
of above five hundred miles long, and near three
hundred broad* Our own country enjoys the
greatest share of this fishery, which is carried on
LECTURE VIII. 59
by the hook and line only, the principal baits,
according to Mr. Pennant, being Herring, pieces
of Sea-fowl, and the shell-fish called Clams, and
with these are caught fish sufficient to find em-
ployment for fifteen thousand British seamen, and
to afford subsistence to a much more numerous
body of people at home, who are engaged in the
various manufactures which so vast a fishery de-
mands. The fish, when taken, are properly cleaned
and dried, and in this state are sent into every
part of the European continent. The fishermen
are well acquainted with the use of the air-bladder
in this fish, which is usually called the sound;
and when the fish is first taken, they contrive to
perforate the sound or air-bladder with a long
needle, in order to let out its contained air, by
which means the fish is effectually kept under
water in their well-boats, and thus brought fresh
to the place of sale.
The third Linnaean division or the Thoracic
tribe is extremely numerous : in this division the
ventral fins are situated immediately beneath the
pectoral ones. Among the most remarkable ge-
nera may be reckoned the lately instituted one
60 LECTURE VIII.
of Gymnetrus, distinguished by its very long,
compressed body, numerous, small, slender teeth,
and very long, slender ventral fins or processes.
One of the most remarkable species is that which
has been named the Russelian Gymnetrus, from
the late Dr. Patrick Russel : it was of a silvery
colour, and is represented on the plate we are
now viewing in its natural size, and was proba-
bly a young specimen from its want of visible
teeth. The same animal in its complete or ad~
•
vanced state appears from the description of Pro-
fessor Ascanius and others to measure not less
than ten feet in length, with a strongly marked
lateral line, and a few rows of dusky spots across
the body. It is a native of the Northern and
Indian seas, and is popularly called the King pf
the Herrings.
Another species is the Hawkenian Gymnetrus,
or Blochian Gymnetrus; in its general appear*
ance much allied to the former, but differing in
colour, having the fins of a bright red, and the
body clouded with blueish bands. A specimen
measuring six feet in length and about ten inches
in breadth, was taken on the coast of Cornwall.
LECTURE VIII. 61
This has been published under the title of the
Comet-Fish; I suppose from the infrequency of
its appearance.
This genus is not a Linnaean one, and was
first described by Ascanius, under the name of
Regalecus.
The beautiful genus Goryphcena or Coryphene,
improperly called Dolphin by sailors, consists in
general of rather large Fishes, of a lengthened
shape, with a large and very sloping head, and in
general of beautiful colours. The common Cory-
phene in particular, is a Fish of extreme beauty of
colour, being of a rich and bright blue-green,
with numerous orange-coloured specks. It mea-
sures about three feet in length, and is an inha-
bitant of the Indian and Atlantic seas, often ap-
pearing in large shoals, and sometimes following
ships in order to obtain any occasional articles of
food which may happen to be thrown overboard.
When taken out of the water its beauty of colour
gradually fades as the Fish expires ; the lustre va-
nishing by degrees, with partial restorations, till
at length it becomes of a dull greyish or cinereous
cast, without any remains of its former splendor.
This gradual evanescence of colour in the dying
62 LECTURE VIII.
Coryphene is contemplated by sailors with as
much delight as the ancient Romans are said to
have exhibited on viewing similar changes in the
expiring Mullet, when brought to their tables
before the feast began.
Among the smallest Fishes of this genus is the
C. Novacula or Razor Coryphene, so named on
account of its extreme thinness of body : it is of a
reddish-yellow colour, varied in some parts with
blue lines and spots.
The genus Echeneis or Remora is a highly sin-
gular one, and is readily distinguished by the very
remarkable structure of the head, which is flat-
tened on the top into the form of an oval space,
divided down the middle, and crossed by very nu-
merous partitions, beset on the edges with small
fibres. By this part the Fishes of this genus
are enabled to adhere with the utmost tenacity
to any moderately flat surface, and thus frequent-
ly affix themselves either to the sides of ships,
or to Sharks and many other of the larger
Fishes.
The ancients imagined that these Fishes pos-
sessed the power of stopping a vessel in full sail
by thus adhering to it, and rendering it immove-
LECTURE VIIL 65
able in the midst of the sea. The adhesion how-
ever of a number of these Fishes at once to the
side of a small canoe, in the earlier ages of man-
kind, may really be supposed to have considerably
retarded its progress, and have even caused it to
incline on one side ; and the tale once related,
might have gradually grown into the exaggerated
powers afterwards ascribed to the animal. The
real fact is, that the Remora being a Fish of very
weak powers of fin, takes the advantage of occa-
sionally attaching itself to any large swimming
body, whether animate or inanimate, which it
happens to meet with ; for when left to its own
exertions it swims weakly, unsteadily, and often,
on its back. It is therefore necessary that it
should avail itself of the occasional assistance of
some larger floating body, and for this purpose
the wonderful structure of the head is formed.
The common Remora or E. Remora of Linnaeus
is a native of the Mediterranean sea, and is of a
brown colour, with about eighteen bars across the
sucker on the head.
Another species, called the Indian Remora, is
of an olive-green colour, with 24 bars across the
sucker. A third species has been discovered in
6i LECTURE VIII.
the Pacific Ocean, which is smaller than the others,
and has ten bars only across the head.
Of the whole tribe of Fishes5 few are more re-
markable than the genus Pkuroncctes, which con-
tains the different kinds of Flounders, Turbots,
Soles and other Fishes of similar kind. In this
genus nature exhibits a most extraordinary devia-
tion from her usual plan in the formation of ani-
mals : the two sides in this genus representing an
upper- and under surface, one appearing at first
view to be the back, and the other the belly of the
Fish. The eyes are placed on one side only, and
the animal generally swims, not in the manner of
other Fishes, but sideways, or with the coloured
surface upwards and the pale one downwards* In
order to facilitate the investigation of this numerous
genus, Linnasus divides them into such as have
the eyes looking either to the left or the right.
If a Fish of this nature be laid with its coloured
side upwards, and its belly towards the observer,
then if the eyes are on the right hand, it belongs
to the division Oculis dextris of Linnssus : if on
the contrary the eyes are on the left hand, it then
must be sought for in the left handed division of
the genus, or among those, in the Linneean phrase,
TTTRJB 0>T
ct'.'j.lvtulvH fubl^ht-t/ 1>\- L'.linuvki- Ffcft
LECTURE Vltf. 65
Ocutis sinistris. It is owing to a want of attention
to this circumstance that so many errors have
crept into works of natural history, relative to the
Fishes of this genus ; for if the engraver is not
careful to reverse the drawing, it will give the spe-
cies in a wrong division of the genus. I cannot
acquit the artists employed in my own works of
some inattention in this respect. Of the species
with the eyes to the right the common Flounder
furnishes a good example, and of those with eyes
to the left the Turbot.
The numerous genus Chatodon is remarkable
for the peculiar elegance and variety of its co-
lours in the different species, which are often dis-
posed in the form of bands or zones, either trans-
verse or longitudinal. Most of these Fishes are
nativ/es of the Indian and American seas. Their
teeth are small, very numerous, close-set, arid
resemble so many bristles.
Another genus, greatly allied to Chnstodon,
and one intermixed with it, differs in, having
strong and broad teeth, and a very strong upright
spine on each side the base of the tail. It is a
lately instituted genus, and is called Accinthurus,
or Thorn-Tail,
LECT. II. F
66 LECTURE VIII.
Among the Thoracic Fishes rank all the kinds
of Perches, forming the Linnaean genus Perca.
They have sharp teeth, scaly and serrated gill-
covers, and a back-fin with the fore-part furnished
with spiny rays, and the back part with soft' ones;
and the scales in most species are hard and rough.
The common Perch is an elegant fish, of an olive
brown, marked by.five or six dusky transverse bars,
and is found in most parts of Europe.
Very strongly allied to the genus Perca are
the several lately instituted genera of Holocentrus
Scitena and some others.
The Fishes of the Mackrel tribe belong to a
genus called Scomber, and are distinguished by
their oblong body, furnished above and below the
back-part near the tail, with several small or spu-
rious fins : in some species also the lateral line OP
middle longitudinal division of the Fish is fur-
nished with a series of strong and broad scales.
The common Mackrel is universally known, and
is certainly one of the most beautiful of the Eu^
ropean Fishes. Its celebrated migrations, so well
detailed in the entertaining work of Mr. Pennant,
begin now to be greatly called in question, and it
is rather supposed that the glittering myriads
LECTURE VIII. 67
Which Appear on the surface of our seas during
the vernal season, were in reality at no great dis-
tance during the severity of winter, having only
quitted the deep retreats of the ocean for the shal-
lower parts near the shores, where they hasten at
that season of the year in order to deposit their
spawn.
Tiie genus Mullus or Mullet consists of Fishes
distinguished by a pair of very long barbs or soft
processes at the tip of the lower jaw. One of
the principal species is the red Mullet or the Sur-
mullet, the favourite luxury of the ancient Ro-
mans, who gave the most extravagant sums for it,
and had it brought to table in a glass vessel, before
the feast began, in order that the guests might
contemplate the elegant changes of its colour
during the minutes of its expiration; the natural
rosy red, exhibiting at that time the most beautiful
flushings and alternate paleness, till at length all
fades into a dull grey.
The concluding genus of the Thoracic Fishes
is that of Trigla, containing the Gurnards: they
are distinguished by a large head, roughed with
sharp lines, and have spiny gill-covers. Of this
68 LECTURE VIIL
genus is the fish called the Piper, of a red colour,
and celebrated for its excellency as an article of
food. But the most remarkable species is the
Flying Gurnard, which is of a reddish colour, with
very strong scales, and the pectoral fins so very
large as to represent a kind of wings, and to
enable the animal to use them occasionally in the
manner of the flying- Fishes emphatically so called :
these broad pectoral fins are also remarkable for
the beauty of their colour, being of a fine oblive
green, with numerous sapphire -coloured spots.
The last Linna^an division consists of the Ab-
dominal Fishes, or those in which the ventral fins
are placed beyond the pectoral ones. This order
contains many very curious and interesting genera,
of which, however, I shall only particularize a very
few, as clear exemplifications of the order. Of
these one of the most important is the genus
SalmOy comprising all the Salmon and Trout race :
a, numerous tribe, distinguished by having a
smooth and somewhat lengthened body, with the
hind part furnished above with a small fatty fin
without any rays. The tongue is cartilaginous,
and often beset with teeth as well as the jaws.
70 8
ti
LECTURE VIII. 69
The common Salmon is the S. Salar of Lin-
nreus, and is an inhabitant of the northern regions,
where it occurs at different periods both in salt
and fresh waters, quitting the sea, at certain
periods, in order to deposit its spawn in the
gravelly beds of clear rivers. At this particular
period hardly any obstacles are able to overcome
the impetuosity of the Salmon intent on forcing
their way up the stream ; and they are known to
spring up occasionally in such a manner as to pass
cataracts of many feet in height. Like the Swal-
low, the Salmon visits the self-same spot each
season ; as has been ascertained by the experiment
of fastening a small ring to the tails of some indi-
viduals, and then setting them at liberty, when
they have made their appearance at the same spot,
for three successive seasons. The male Salmon
is distinguished by its strongly curved or hooked
jaws.
The Trout, the Grayling, the Char, and a
multitude of other Fishes, esteemed for the use of
the table, belong to the genus Salmo.
The genus Esox or Pike is known by its flat-
tened head, wide mouth, sharp numerous teeth,
and lengthened body, with the back and vent-fin
70 „ LECTURE VIII.
placed nearly opposite each other towards the
end : the common Pike is a native of many parts
of Europe, but is commonly said to have been
first introduced into England in the reign of Henry
the Eighth. In America are certain very large
species of this genus, covered with very strong,
bony, square scales, as if in a kind of armour.
But the genus Silurus is a more remarkable
instance of this bony kind of armature investing
some particular Fishes. In the genus Silurus we
have examples of Fishes entirely coated as if in a
regular suit of armour. Many naturalists, how-
ever, choose to separate these armed species from
the rest under different titles.
The curious genus Exocoetus contains the true
or proper fly ing- fishes, or such as are particularly
known by that name : this genus is by no means
numerous; containing, only four or five species.
All are distinguished by a lengthened herring-
i
shaped body, and pectoral fins of a vast length
and size, and of a sharpened form. The common
Flying-Fish is about the size of a Herring and of
a silvery colour, with pale brown fins. It is often
observed in the Mediterranean, sometimes singly,
and sometimes in shoals, occasionally springing
JJO
JJ2
LECTURE VIII. 71
out of the water in order to avoid the rapacity of
the larger fishes, and springing with expanded fins
to the distance of about an hundred yards, and at
the height of about three feet above the surface
of the water, after which it is again obliged to
plunge ; its fins growing dry, and unable to sup-
port it any farther. The other species are chiefly
natives of the Indian seas.
The Carp-Tribe, forming the genus Cyprmus,
has for its character, a small mouth without
teeth, which are placed at the entrance into the
stomach ; an oval oblong body, and, in general,
a single back-fin. As an example of this genus
I shall only mention the beautiful species called
the Gold-Fish, which, as every one knows, is ori-
ginally a native of China, from whence it has
been gradually introduced into many parts of
Europe; into England (if I mistake not) about
the year l6Ql» but did not become common till
about the year 1728, when a great many were
brought over by Sir Matthew Decker, and by his
means dispersed throughout the kingdom. Like
the rest of the Carp tribe they are very long-lived,
and are said to last above a century, As to" the
72 LECTURE VIII.
common Carp it is supposed to arrive at the age
of two hundred years.
We have now passed through all the Linncean
orders of Fishes, but there still remains a large
tribe which I before mentioned under the title of
Cartilaginous Fishes. I also observed that they
differ from all other fishes in having a compara-
tively soft or cartilaginous skeleton, and that some
particularities in the structure of their gills in-
duced Linnaeus improperly to rank them as an
order of the Amphibia under the name of Nantes.
Of the Cartilaginous Fishes the first genus is
that of Petromyzon or Lamprey, The character
is a long, round, Eel-shaped body; a mouth fur-
nished with numerous teeth in circular rows, and
seven round spiracles or breathing-holes on each
side the neck; these breathing-holes each lead into
a tubular cavity, lined with a red pleated mem-
brane, thus forming a series of organs analogous
to gills in fishes, but not quite of a similar struc*
ture, and more approaching to that of lungs.
The common or great Lamprey is an inhabitant
of the sea, but comes into rivers during the spring.
It is viviparous like the Eel, which it resembles in
LECTURE VIII. 73
its general habits. It sorhetirnes is seen to swim
with a considerable degree of swiftness^ but is
more commonly found adhering by the mouth to
some large stone or other substance, to which it
clings so powerfully as to require a great degree
of force to separate it. As an article of food the
Lamprey has long been celebrated. Its usual
colour is a dull yellowish-white, clouded with
brown or olive-coloured variegations. All the
rest of the genus are of much smaller size, but in
shape and way of living resemble the great Lam-
prey, except that they are confined to rivers.
The next genus of the Cartilaginous Fishes
consists of the Ray or Skate tribe, and is charac-
terized by a flattish body, in some of a lozenge-
shape, in others rounded, and in all furnished with
a lengthened tail : the mouth is placed beneath
the head, and is furnished with very numerous
small teeth generally covering the lips or edges of
the mouth ; and on each side the neck beneath*
are placed five large transverse slits or openings
leading to the gills. The common Skate furnishes
a good example of this genus, and is the Raja
Balis of Linnasus. It often grows to a vast size,
74 LECTURE VIII.
sometimes weighing at least two hundred pounds ;
its general colour on the upper side is pale brown,
with deeper variegations, and white, tinged with
flesh-colour beneath. It is found in great plenty
about the European coasts. Like the rest of the
genus the Skate may be termed oviviviparous, dis-
charging its young, each in a kind of oblong square
capsule or pouch.
Some species of Ray are furnished with a very
long and slender tail, towards the middle of which
is attached a long, sharp, serrated spine, which the
animal uses both as an offensive and defensive
weapon : the wounds it inflicts with this spine are
considered as highly dangerous, but the effect is
produced by the mere puncture and laceration of
the instrument, and not by any poisonous fluid, of
which, as we have before had occasion to observe,
all the fish tribe is destitute.
Among the most remarkable fishes of this
genus, are those which are distinguished by a sort
of forked or two-lobed head, with the side or pec-
toral fins extending to a great distance on each
side. These kinds of Rays grow to a vast size,
and are chiefly found in the Indian and American
TORPIEDO Ti
l.nndon Published Try G;A',,irshv FU& Street:
LECTURE VIII. 75
seas. We have accounts of an animal of this kind
taken on the coast of Barbadoes, which required
seven yoke of oxen to draw it along.
But the most curious species of Ray is the
Torpedo, which is the Raja Torpedo of Linnaeus,
an inhabitant of the European seas, and some-
times taken on our own coasts, though much more
common about those of France and Italy. The
body of the Torpedo is of a rounded shape, and
of a dull reddish-brown colour, with four or five
large round dusky spots, and of a pale or white
colour beneath ; the tail is of moderate length,
and terminated by a slightly rounded fin. The
Torpedo possesses a similar electric or galvanic
power with the Gymnotus before described, and
has been celebrated both by ancients and moderns
for its wonderful faculty of causing a sudden numb-
ness or painful sensation in the limbs of those who
handle it. The particular organs forming its
electric or galvanic battery have been accurately
described by Mr. Hunter in the Philosophical
Transactions, and as the general history of the
animal is now so well known, I shall at present
content myself with saying, that the Torpedo
from the first moment of its birth begins to exer-
76 LECTURE VIII.
else its electric powers; and Spallanzani even
assures us that having opened a Torpedo and
taken out one of the young, he found that it com-
municated a very perceptible electric shock.
The next remarkable genus among the Carti-
laginous Fishes is that of Squalus or Shark : In
these animals the body is of a lengthened form;
the mouth placed beneath, and furnished with nu-
merous teeth, and on each side the neck are a
certain number of transverse slits, leading to the
gills, as in the Ray tribe : the number of these
slits or openings differs in the different species
from five to seven ; but the prevailing number is
five. It would be unnecessary to add that Sharks
are animals of great rapacity, and that the larger
kinds are among the most formidable enemies of
the deep. The white Shark in particular, or
Squalus Carcharias, has long been celebrated for
its destructive powers, and is the dread of navi-
gators in the warmer regions. It arrives at the
length of more than thirty feet, and is of a pale
grey colour : the mouth is extremely wide, and
is furnished with from three to six rows of strong,
flat, triangular, sharp-pointed teeth, serrated on
their edges, and so placed in the cartilaginous
LECTURE VIIL 77
edge of the jaws as to be either raised or depressed
at pleasure. So voracious is this animal that like
many other inhabitants of the sea, it does not spare
even its own species. An author of credit* re-
lates that a Laplander had taken a shark, and
fastened it to his canoe ; but soon missed it, with-
out being able to guess how : in a short time af-
terwards he caught a second, of much larger size,
in which, when opened, he found that which he
had lost.
The Sharks form a very numerous race, and
some are distinguished by the elegancy of their
colours, as the Zebra Shark, an Indian species,
of a brown colour, with white bars and stripes,
and the blue European Shark, which is of an
elegant bright blueish grey colour. Of those
which have the most singular appearance the
S. Zygasna or Hammer-headed Shark affords a cu-
rious example. It is of a brown colour, and grows
to the length of fifteen feet : the head is length-
ened out to a vast distance on each side, and the
eyes placed at each extremity. It is an inha-
bitant of the Mediterranean sea.
The Sharks, like the Rays, are ovi-viviparous
* Leems.
7S LECTURE VIIL
fishes, and produce their young enclosed in ob-
long cartilaginous square sheaths, each corner of
which runs out into the form of a lengthened and
convoluted tendril.
The Sturgeons which I shall next mention,
form a genus called Accipenser, and have a long
body, covered above with rows of large bony tu-
bercles ; a lengthened, obtuse snout, furnished
with four tendrils or beards ; and a mouth placed
entirely beneath, perfectly destitute of teeth, and
only capable of closing by means of a strong
cartilaginous edge or border. The Common Stur-
geon grows to the length of eighteen or twenty
feet, and is of a pale olive-brown above and white
beneath. It is a sea fish, but frequents the
mouths of large rivers during the early part of
summer in order to deposit its spawn. It has
been often celebrated as an excellent fish for the
table, and was held in high esteem among the
ancient Romans. From the roe or spawn pro-
perly pressed and salted is prepared the substance
called Caviare. The fish called the Isinglass Stur-
geon is of still larger size than the common one,
and is the A. Huso of Linnceus : it is of a dusky
blue colour above, and white or reddish white be-
LECTURE VIII. 79
neath, and is much less strikingly tuberculated
than the Common Sturgeon ; being sometimes
found nearly smooth. It is from the sound or
air-bladder of this species of Sturgeon that the
substance called Isinglass is prepared.
The smallest species of Sturgeon yet known
is called the Sterlet, which seldom exceeds the
length of three feet. It is found in the Caspian
sea, and in some of the Russian rivers, and is
highly celebrated for the delicacy of its flesh. It
is recorded of Prince Potemkin of Russia, that
in seasons when the Sterlet was unusually scarce
he has been known to giv;e the sum of three hun-
dred rubles for a tureen of Sterlet soup. The
Caviar prepared from the roe of the Sterlet is
a dainty still more expensive, and is said to be
almost exclusively confined to the use of Russian
Royalty.
I shall finish with a very hasty survey of two
or three other remarkable genera of the Carti-
laginous tribe. Among these the genus Lophiys
claims a place. It has a depressed head, nu-
merous, sharp teeth, and pectoral fins furnished
with a kind of joint resembling an elbow. The
only European species is the L. Piscatorius, or
W> LECTURE VIII.
Angler, sometimes called the Toadfish. It is
found about our own coasts, and grows to the
length of six or seven feet. Its appearance is
extremely singular, the head being of enormous
size, and the mouth excessively wide. Its co*
lour dusky brown above, and pale beneath*
In the American seas are found some species
of a still more singular appearance, as the L. His-
trio in particular, which exhibits one of the most
grotesque shapes that can easily be imagined.
It grows to more than a foot in length.
The genus called Ostracion or Trunk-Fish, has
the body cased in a bony sheath or box, curi-
ously divided or marked into angular spaces, leav-
ing only the tail free or disengaged. The spe-
cies of this genus are sometimes difficultly ascer-
tained, on account of a certain similarity of struc-
ture : many of the most remarkable kinds have
been admirably figured in the celebrated work
of Dr. Bloch.
The genus Diodon is so named from the pe-
culiar appearance of the mouth, the bony jaws
of which constitute as it were two large teeth,
Nothing can be more singular than the appear-
ance of some of the leading species of this genus.
LECTURE VIII. 81
One of these is the Diodon Hystrix, or Porcu-
pine-Fish, which grows to the length of about
a foot and half, and is covered over with a strong
skin, beset with very long and sharp-pointed
spines, so that in point of habit or external ap-
pearance it may be said to connect in some de-
gree the class of fishes witl> that of the spiny
quadrupeds, ;such as the Porcupines and Hedge-
hogs. Another species has shorter spines with a
much broader base.
There is a very remarkable European fish,
sometimes referred to this genus, but which in
reality should form a distinct one, commonly
called the Sun-Fish or Diodon Mola. It is of
a silvery colour with a cast of blueish brown ;
grows to a very large size, and perfectly repre-
sents the head of some large fish abruptly cut
off from the body.
I must not omit observing that the genus
Diodon is that which misled Linnaeus into the
idea that the Cartilaginous fishes were furnished
with a kind of lungs as well as with gills. In
order to ascertain this point he requested Dr.
Garden of Carolina to examine into the organs
of the Porcupine and other Diodons in a living
LftCT. II. G
82 . LECTURE VIII.
state: the result of these inquiries seemed to
prove a species of real internal lungs; but the
more accurate researches of others have since
proved that these supposed lungs were no other
than a particular kind of vesicular processes which
the animal has the power of occasionally inflating
in order to render itself specifically lighter ancl
to ascend at pleasure with the greater facility.
LECTURE IX,
W E are now to direct our attention to a large
and various class of beings known by the title
of Insects. The characters by which Insects are
distinguished from other animals are the following.
First, they are furnished with several feet ; never
fewer than six, and sometimes with a great many.
Secondly their flesh, or the muscular part of their
frame, is affixed to the internal surface of their
skin, which is generally of a somewhat tough or
strong substance, and in many even hard or horny.
Thirdly, they breathe, not in the usual manner of
the generality of the larger animals, by lungs, or
by gills, but by a sort of spiracles or breathing-
holes, situated at certain distances along each side
pf the body ; and lastly, the head is generally fuiv
84 LECTURE IX.
nished with a peculiar pair of processes called An-*
tenna or jointed horns, which are extremely various
in the different tribes, and form a leading charac-
ter in the institution of the genera or smaller as-
sortments into which Insects are distributed.
The ancients seem to have entertained very
vague ideas relative to the production of Insects^
which they did not suppose to be conducted in the
same regular and invariable order as in the larger
animals, but to be owing to the putrefaction of
various animal and vegetable substances ; nor was
it till towards the commencement of even the
eighteenth century that the general history of In-
sects began to be clearly comprehended. Their
forms and differences had indeed long before been
studied with some degree of attention ; but the
accurate knowledge of their respective tribes, and
their various states or transformations, had been
but obscurely traced or understood.
The first state in which the generality of In-
sects appear is that of an egg. From this is
hatched the animal in its second state, in which
it is often , called the Caterpillar, though this
term more particularly relates to the insects of
e Moth and Butterfly tribe. The Insect in this
LECTURE IX. 85
its imperfect state has been called by Linnaeus by
the name of Larva, being as it were the mask or
disguise of the animal in its future form. It is
much to be wished that the word, with proper va-
riation, might be received into our own language,
under the name of Larve, by which means we
should avoid the inconvenient term of Caterpillar,
which is apt to convey the idea of one particular
tribe of insects only. The Larve then differs very
much in its appearance, according to the different
tribe to which it belongs. In the Moth and But-
terfly tribe, as before observed, it is emphatically
called by the name of Caterpillar, and is univer-
sally known. In the Beetle tribe it is of a thick
heavy form, with the body of a rounded and
bulging appearance at the hind-part. In the Lo-
cust or Grasshopper tribe, and some others of the
same order, it does not much differ from the com-
plete insect, except in not being furnished with
wings. In the Fly and Bee tribe and some others
it is popularly known by the name of Maggot,
and is of an oval-oblong form, without any feet.
In the Dragon-Flies, and in the Water-Beetles, and
some other insects, it is often of a very singular
form, and differs more from the complete insect
*6 LECTURE IX.
than in any others except those of the Moth and
Butterfly tribe.
When the time arrives in which the Larve is to-
change into its next state, that of Chrysalis, or, as
Linnaeus calls it, Pupa, it ceases to feed, and hav-
ing placed itself in some quiet situation for the
purpose, lies still for several hours ; and then, by
a kind of laborious effort, frequently repeated, di-
vests itself of its external skin, or larve-coat, and
immediately appears in the very different form of
a chrysalis or pupa. The Chrysalis or Pupa differs
in the different tribes of Insects almost as much as
the Larve. In most of the Beetle-tribe it is
furnished with short legs, capable of some degree
of motion, though very rarely exerted. In the
Butterfly tribe it is perfectly destitute of all ap-
pearance of limbs, and has no other motion than-
a mere lateral bending or writhing when touched.
In the Locust tribe it differs but very little from
the perfect insect, except in not having the wings
complete. In most of the Fly tribe it is perfectly
oval, without any apparent motion, or distinction;
of parts. In the Bees and other Insects of a si-
milar cast, it is less shapeless than in that of Flies,
exhibiting the faint or imperfect appearance of the:
LECTURE IX. 87
limbs. In the Libellulas or Dragon-Flies it is loco-
motive, as in the Locust tribe, but differs most
widely from the appearance of the complete insect,
and may be numbered among the most singular of
the whole. I should here observe that the Lin-
nasan term Pupa, which most modern entomolo-
gists substitute for that of chrysalis, was given
from the indistinct resemblance which many in-
sects bear in this state to a doll, or a child when
swathed up according to the old fashion.
From the Pupa or Chrysalis emerges at length
the complete insect, in its perfect or ultimate form,
from which it can never after change, nor can it
receive any further increase of growth. This last
or perfect state of an insect is in the Linnsean lan-
guage the Imago.
This surprising alteration of shape during the
different periods of an Insect's life is to be con-
sidered as an evolution, or successive display of
parts before concealed, and which lay masked
under a different shape. Swammerdam persuaded
himself that he could demonstrate all the parts
of the future Butterfly, even in the body of the
Caterpillar itself; and though this has been some-
times called in question, yet it may be easily cOn*
*s LECTURE IX.
ceived that by a very accurate and delicate inves-
tigation, the rudiments of the future Fly may be
detected in the Caterpillar, provided it be ex-
amined but a very few hours before its trans-
formation into the chrysalis.
It is in the larve or caterpillar state that most
insects are peculiarly voracious, as in many of the
common caterpillars of Moths and Butterflies.
In their complete state many insects are satisfied
with the .lightest and most delicate nutriment ;
some do not feed at all, while others, as several
Beetles, Dragon-Flies, &c. devour animal and
vegetable substances with a considerable degree
of avidity.
Some insects undergo no change of shape, but
are hatched from the egg complete in all their
parts, and only cast their skin from time to time
during their growth, till at length they acquire
the full size of their respective species.
We must now attend to a few particulars re-
lative to the general anatomy of insects. The
major part of insects have the head distinctly
divided or separated from the breast, and the latter
from the body ; thus forming three portions. The
limbs in insects, as I before observed, are nevej?
LECTURE IX. 89
less than six in number, and in some insects much
more numerous. They are, in general, divided or
marked into a regular thigh, leg, and foot, which
latter generally consists of several joints, and is
in most insects terminated by a pair of curved
claws.
The Mouth in some tribes of insects is formed
for gnawing or breaking the food, and operates by
a pair of strong, horny jaws, moving laterally, as
in the Beetle tribe; while in others it is formed
for suction, and consists of a tubular organ, fur-
nished with proper accompaniments for facilitating
its operation. In the Butterfly and Moth tribe it
^consists of a double tube, of different length in
the different species, and when at rest, is rolled
into a spiral form, and extended at full length when
in use.
The Stomach varies in the different tribes of
insects, and the intestines are generally rather
strait, or usually make but few turns or bend ings.
The existence of the Brain in insects is denied
by Linnaeus, but by this he can only be supposed
to mean that it does not bear much resemblance
to that of larger animals. In reality it is, as may
be imagined, very small, and from it extends along
so LECTURE ix.
or down the back a kind of pulpy cord, analogous'
to the spinal marrow, and which ramifies into
branches or divisions, which are conducted to the
different parts of the body, arid form the nervous
system in insects.
The Eyes in insects differ in the different tribes,
but by far the greater part of insects are furnished
with eyes apparently two in number, and situated
on each side the head. The outward surface or
coat of these eyes is composed of a prodigious
number of minute hexagonal convexities, like so
many convex lenses or glasses, but the exact man-
ner in which vision is performed by these organs
is not perhaps exactly ascertained. Some have
supposed each of the hexagonal divisions or lense*
to operate as a real and separate eye, and that the
Optic nerves are expanded into a separate retina
Or coat at the bottom of each. The head of a
common Dragon-Fly or Libellula is furnished with
no less than twenty- five thousand of these dimi-
nutive lenses. That they are really convex exter-
nally is certain, but that they are also convex cm
the internal or opposite part, though affirmed by
many, may be doubted; and it is perhaps more
probable that each is in reality what opticians
LECTURE IX. 91
Call a magnifying meniscus, having the outward
or convex part of a smaller sphere than the con-
cave or interior.
In Spiders the eyes are from six to eight in
number; of a simple structure, and placed at a
considerable distance from each other.
But besides the eyes just described, or those
placed on each side the head, there are on the
heads of many insects two or three small separate
eyes, of a simple structure, and seated on the top
of the head. They have been called by Linnaeus
by the title of Stemmata, and their real nature is
not clearly understood.
The Muscles, or organs constituting the several
portions of the flesh in insects, are far more nu-
merous than in the larger animals, and are ex-
tremely sensible or irritable. In the human body
it is observed, that the muscles can hardly be said
to exceed the number of five hundred ; but in a
krge Caterpillar, the anatomy of which has been
given with laborious accuracy by Lyonett, the
number of the muscles amounts to more than four
thousand.
The comparative powers of the muscles in in*
sects are also far stronger than in the larger ani-
$2 LECTURE IX.
mals: thus we know that a Flea and a Grass-
hopper are capable of springing to a much greater
distance in proportion to the length of their bodies
than any quadrupeds; for a Flea is capable of
springing at least 200 times its own length;
whereas the Jerboa and the Kanguroo, in their
most powerful springs fall very far short of the
same proportional distance.
We have before observed that insects are not
provided with lungs, like the higher orders of ani-
mals, but that they breathe by means of a certain
number of pores or small openings, generally
placed on each side the body, and which are con-
tinued into very numerous branches, dispersed
about the body of the animal. If the lateral
pores or breathing-holes in insects be stopped^
by rubbing them with oil or any other sub-
stance capable of excluding the air, the animal,
after a certain time, falls into convulsions and
dies.
It has been a matter of doubt among natu-
ralists, and particularly those of the French school,
whether insects can properly be said to have a
circulation of the blood; and whether they have
any organ that can properly be called a heart.
LECTURE IX. 93
The celebrated Cuvier seems to suppose that they
have not. It is acknowledged indeed that the
animals of the Crab and Lobster tribe, the Mo-
noculi, and others of that particular cast, have a
genuine circulation; but these animals should,
according to some Zoologists, be separated from
insects, and form a distinct division in the animal
kingdom. Nay Monsieur Lamarck is willing to
exclude even the Spider tribe from the class of
insects, because in these animals the heart and
circulation of the blood are distinctly visible.
The organ which the famous Italian anatomist
Malpighi supposed to constitute the heart, or
rather a kind of chain of hearts, in the Silkworm,
has been since proved to be a vessel of a different
nature, the use of which does not appear to be
fully understood; but no ramifications of blood-
vessels proceed from it.
It seems to have escaped the attention of those
who are not willing to allow a circulation of the blood
in insects, that, though it may not be perceptible
in the major part, yet it certainly appears to take
place in some which are allowed on all hands to
be genuine insects; and particularly in the genus
Cimex or Bug. I shall here give a quotation on
94 LECTURE IX.
this subject from an author, who, though he cannot
be supposed to have deeply investigated the anar
tomy of insects, was yet an excellent general
observer, and who detailed with great plainness
and accuracy his own observations, viz. Mr. Henry
Baker, the celebrated microscopic observer. In
speaking of the common Bug or Cimex lectu-
larius, Mr. Baker says : " In the legs of these in-
sects, when very small, the current of the blood
is remarkably visible, together with an extra-
ordinary vibration of the vessels, which I have
never observed in any other creature ; and though
one of these animals has been confined between
two glasses for many weeks together, so as not to
be incapable of stirring, and has at times appeared
dead, yet a little warmth, properly applied, would
renew the motion of the bowels, and the circu?
Jation of the blood as briskly as ever." Mr. Baker
also observes that the circulation of the blood
may be perceived in the wings of Grasshoppers,
and that the globules of the blood in those animals
are of a green colour.
After this general description of the nature of
insects at large, I shall proceed to a slight survey
of the several families or divisions into which they
LECTURE IX. 95
are systematically distributed for the convenience
of investigation and arrangement $ and shall give
a few examples of each division.
The Linnaean system of entomology being of
all others the most elegant and easy, will be best
calculated for our purpose. Linnaeus distributes
all insects into seven Orders or great assortments,
the first of which contains all the insects of the
Beetle tribe, or such as have strong horny sheaths
or covers to their wings. I must here observe,
that the term Beetle is more particularly restricted
to one single genus so called, but in a general
sense it takes in the whole tribe called by Linnaeus
Coleoptera or sheath-winged insects. In these
animals the real or proper wings are of a mern-
branaceous nature, and when not in use are cu-
riously folded under the exterior strong or horny
sheaths. The Coleopterous insects form a very
large or extensive order ; the genera or particular
sets being very numerous, and each distinguished
by some leading particularity of appearance.
In the genus Beetle, properly and emphatically
KO called (in Latin Scarabteus,) the distinctive cha-
racter is that the antennae or horns are furnished
at the tip with a slightly-expanded part, divided
96 LECTURE IX.
into several distinct plates or laminae, as in the
common CockchafFer, which being one of the
most frequent insects in this country, must be
supposed to be known to almost every one. It
proceeds from a yellowish-white larve, of a disr
agreeable appearance, which resides under ground,
and feeds on the roots of corn and other grasses,
and is supposed to continue at least three years in
that state before it gives birth to the complete
insect. Among the exotic Scarabaei or Beetles
many are found of a gigantic size in comparison
with those species which are natives of Europe;
some measuring four, five, or even six inches in
total length. The genus is also extremely ex-
tensive, and so singular is the appearance of many,
that hardly any variety of horn or process can be
conceived, which is not found exemplified in some
particular species. As a proof of this we may
take a view of some of the exotic Beetles repre-
sented in the works of Monsieur Olivier, Mr.
Drury and others. I shall also particularize one
insect of this genus, which, I believe, exists only
in the splendid collection of Mr. Francillon, and
which, from its very peculiar appearance, has been
named the Kanguroo Beetle.
DlBYMFS
LECTURE ix. 97
Among the most numerous genera of the Co-
leopterous or sheath-winged insects is that of Ce-
fambyx or Goat-Chaffer, which contains a vast
variety of species ; some of extraordinary size,
and of beautiful colours *. One of the principal
English species is the Cerambyx moschatus or
Musk Goat-Chaffer, a beautiful insect of more
than an inch in length, and with very long, joint-
ed horns. It is of a fine dark golden-green co-
lour, and diffuses to a great distance a very fra-
grant scent, like that of a mixture of musk and
roses. It chiefly appears in the hottest part
of July, and is seen on willows and poplars in
particular.
A genus still more numerous than that of Cer-
ambyx is called Curculio or Weevil, and is easily
distinguished by the remarkable situation of the
antennae or horns, which are placed on the snout
itself, which in this genus is often of a considerable
length. In this genus stands the famous insect
generally known by the title of the Diamond-
* This genus has a rather lengthened body, and very long an-
tennae in most species.
LECT. II. H
98 LECTURE IX.
Beetle, a native of Brazil, and remarkable for the
extreme brilliancy of its appearance, which is
owing to numerous rows of scaly spots of a golden
green cast, disposed on a jet-black ground, and
accompanied by a variable or iridescent lustre.
The magnified figure (here represented) will give
a clearer idea of its appearance than any verbal
description. It is an insect which varies consider-
ably in size, but is usually something more than
an inch in length.
To the genus Curculio also belongs the curious
animal the Nut Weevil, a small brown insect,
with an extremely long and slender snout. This
insect is the parent of the maggot in the hazel-
nut, which is known to every body. About the
beginning of August, the female Curculio wan-
ders about the hazel-trees, while the nuts are
in a very tender state, the rind of which she
perforates with her snout, and deposits an egg
in the puncture; and thus continues to do, till
she has deposited her whole stock. The nut,
not apparently injured by this slight perforation,
continues to grow, and gradually ripens its kernel.
When the egg is hatched, the maggot, finding its
food ready-prepared, begins to feast on the kernel.
LECTURE IX. 99
By the time it is fully grown the natural fall of the
nut takes place, and the animal, not at all injured
by the shock, creeps out at the circular hole which
it has previously prepared, and immediately bur-
rows under ground, where, after a certain time, it
casts its skin and commences chrysalis, or pupa,
in which state it remains all winter, and till the
beginning of the following August, when it
emerges from its concealment and appears in its
complete form. Its colour is a dull, uniform
brown.
The order Coleoptera or the sheath-winged
tribe contains a great many other very curious
genera, both of large and small size, but the
limits of our Lecture will not allow us to parti-
cularize more than a few examples of each order
of insects.
I shall therefore now pass to the second Lin-
naean order, called Hemiptem, or as it were Half-
winged insects j for in this order the wing-sheaths
are of a tough or leathery constitution at their
upper part, and soft, or membranaceous at the
lower, and the real or under-wings are often of
great size, and pleated longitudinally in the man-
ner of a fan. This order qontains all the in-
100 LECTURE IX.
sects of the Locust and Grasshopper tribe ; the
Cockroaches ; the Lantern-Flies ; the Cicadse, and
many others, some of large and some of very small
size*
The genus called Blatta o Cockroach is dis-
tinguished by the flattened form of the body ; by
a pair of long, bristle-shaped horns at the head,
by the wings lying horizontally over the body,
and by a pair of tips or processes resembling short
horns at the end of the body. The Cockroaches-
are a numerous and disagreeable tribe ; generally
running very swiftly, chiefly appearing by night,
and feeding on almost all kind of animal sub-
stances: they are mostly natives of warm cli-
mates : the species now so very common in this
country, and especially in the metropolis, is sup-
posed to have been originally imported from the
Eastern regions; it has obtained among the Lon-
don vulgar the very improper title of the Black
Beetle, a name which not only confounds it with a
species of real Beetle, emphatically so called i»
the country, but also leads people erroneously to
suppose it of the Beetle tribe or order Coleoptera.
It is the Blatta Orientalis of Linnaeus, and should
be called the Eastern or Oriental Cockroach. To
gigantea
J24
Americana
LECTURE IX. 101
be particular in its description would be unneces-
sary. In South America and the West Indies is a
species much resembling it, but of a rather larger
size, of a longer shape, and of a fine chesnut-co-
lour : it is the B. Americana of Linnaeus or Ame-
rican Cockroach, and is excellently figured by the
celebrated Madam Merian, in her splendid work
on the insects of Surinam. But the most remark-
able and destructive of all the Cockroaches is the
B. gigantea, or Great Cockroach, found in many
parts of the West Indies and America. It is
often seen of nearly the diameter of an egg, and
is of a brown colour. Like the rest of the tribe,
it comes out chiefly by night, and devours almost
every article of an animal nature, thus committing
great devastation in domestic articles. It has also
a most troublesome practice of making a kind of
drumming noise behind wainscot or paper by
night, so that only those who are very good sleep-
ers can repose in rooms which are haunted by this
insect. It is figured in the elegant work of the
}ate Mr. Drury.
But the ravages committed by the Blattse or
Cockroaches are chiefly of a domestic nature, and
fall infinitely short of those inflicted on mankind
102 LECTURE IX.
by the Locust tribe. The genus Gryllus, compre-
hending all the kinds of Locusts and Grasshoppers,
is wonderfully numerous, and is distinguished by
a large head, with strong jaws; slender horns, a
lengthened body; and the hind-legs formed for
leaping. Among the species most remarkable for
their ravages is the Gryllus migratorius or migra-
tory Locust, which of all the insects capable of
injuring mankind, seems to possess the most
dreadful powers of destruction. Legions of these
animals are from time to time observed in various
parts of the world, but more particularly in the
Eastern regions, where the havoc they sometimes
commit is almost incredible. The sun is often
darkened by their numbers while the swarm is in
the act of migration ; so that at mid-day people
can hardly distinguish each other. They settle
on the richest parts of the country, and in a few
hours devour all the corn and other vegetables,
and change the most fertile province into the ap-
pearance of a barren desert. In the year 1748,
some straggling flights, which had committed con-
siderable havoc in some parts of Germany and
France, were observed to make their appearance
in England, and were even seen about and in the
LECTURE IX. 103
metropolis itself; but as they were evidently
driven out of their course by adverse winds, and
were much weakened during their flight, they soon
perished. Straggling specimens are from time to
time observed, but happily this insect can hardly
be fairly numbered among the regular native in-
sects of England. Its general size may be ob-
served in the figures we are now viewing, which
are copied from those of the admirable Roesel, an
artist of such transcendent excellence in his mode
of representing the smaller animals, that in the
words of Mr. Fuseli he may be said to have
raised insect-painting almost to the dignity of
History.
A species of Locust of much larger size and
of great beauty of colours is that called G. cris-
tatus or the crested Locust, so named from the
rising processes on the top of the back. This
species is at least five or six times the size of the
migratory or wandering Locust, and is a native of
the Eastern regions. It is often salted, and used
as an article of food in many parts of the Levant,
and it is supposed that it was the food of saint
John during his state of retirement in the desert.
It has indeed been sometimes supposed that the
104 LECTURE IX.
word axpfas in the sacred writings, may rather
mean the tender shoots of vegetables , but since
the fact is so well ascertained that Locusts are
still eaten in those regions, we need not admit any
other interpretation than the common one, nor
need we wonder that an abstemious Anchoret,
during his state of solitary seclusion from the
commerce of the world, should support himself on
a food which certainly is not to be numbered
among the luxuries of life, but merely to be re-
garded as a substitute for food of a more agree-
able nature.
I shall only mention as a farther example of
the Hemipterous insects, the beautiful genus Fill-
gora or Lantern-Fly. It is distinguished by the
peculiar structure of the head, which in most spe-
cies, and more especially in the great or chief
kind, is of a large, lengthened, and inflated form,
as if swelled out with air ; and the mouth consists,
of a long, slender tube, lying beneath the breast.
The F. Lanternaria or South-American Lantern
Fly is certainly one of the most curious, and eveu
one of the most beautiful of insects. It is a na-
tive of many parts of South- America, and is com-
mon in Surinam, wjiere it was observed in par?
216"
05. Oaf 2 ZeruicTLt Published b\- frJEearjlty. Flee
LECTURE IX, 105
ticular by the celebrated Madam Merian, and is
figured in her most elegant work on the Surinam
insects, where she gives an entertaining account
of the surprize into which she and her domestics
were thrown on first observing these insects to
shine by night, like so many flames of fire in the
room into which they had been introduced. The
insect is of the size represented in the figures we
are now viewing. Its colours, when living, con-
sist of a beautiful variegation of brown, green,
and red, on a yellowish ground, and the under
wings are decorated by a large eye-shaped spot on
each. The light afforded by the fire or Lantern-
Fly proceeds entirely from the head, and is said to
be sufficient to enable a person to read the small-
est print by; as well as to travel with by night
in the manner of a torch, if tied to the end of a
stick. Madam Merian was somewhat deceived
as to the larva or first stage of this insect, which
she confounds with a species of Cicada, and thiy
js one of the most remarkable oversights in her
work ; in which, if there be here and there a few
inaccuracies in her descriptions, we must at least
allow that the general elegance of her figures can
[jardly be surpassed.
105 LECTURE IX.
We now pass to the most splendid of all the
orders of insects, entitled Lepidoptera or scaly-
winged insects. It consists of all the Moth and
Butterfly tribe, or the Papilionaceous insects, as
they are often called. The powder or down on
the wings of these insects has been often con-
sidered by naturalists as composed of a kind of
feathers ; but in reality it is composed of a kind
of very minute scales, which differ in size and
form in the different species, as well as on the
different parts of the same species : their general
appearance is that of an abrupt oval, terminating
in several projecting points at the abrupt or broad
end, and fastened by a small quill or point at the
root or opposite end to the membrane of the
wing. The Lepidopterous insects, or the Butterfly
and Moth tribe are divided by Linnaeus into three
•*
distinct genera or sets, under the titles of Papilio,
Sphinx, and Phalcena, or Butterfly, Sphinx, and
Moth. They all proceed from Caterpillars, which
afterwards change into a chrysalis, out of Avhich,
after a certain period, emerges the complete
insect.
This change is so familiarly known as to su-
persede the necessity of any particular description.
LECTURE IX. 107
In the Butterflies, the wings, when the insect
is at rest, are so placed as to meet upwards, or
by their upper surfaces applied to each other;
and the horns or antennas in most species terminate
in a small head or club. The genus Papilio or
Butterfly is so astonishingly numerous, that in or-
der to facilitate the investigation of the species,
it is absolutely necessary to divide them into seve-
ral sections instituted from the particular shape of
their wings and other particulars. This has been
done with great elegance by Linnaeus. The
largest of the genus, and such whose wings if
measured from the inner or lower corner to the
tip are longer than if measured from the same
corner to the base or shoulder-part, are termed
Equites or Knights or Chiefs, and are ingeniously
divided into Greeks and Trojans, and named from,
the principal Heroes of the Iliad. The Trojans
are distinguished by red or blood-coloured spots on
each side or near the breast ; and are generally
of dark colours. The Greeks have no red marks
near the breast, and are generally of more brilliant
colours : but some inaccuracies have been ob-
served in the Linnaean arrangement, which are
easily rectified by slight transpositions. Of the
108 LECTURE IX.
Trojan division one of the most magnificent is
the Papillo Priamus or great black and green Am-
boina Butterfly ; and of the Greek division the
European species called Papilio Machaon or Swal-
low-tailed Butterfly may serve as an example.
The remaining sections of the Butterfly tribe
are distributed according to rules equally inge-
nious, and by which the student in Entomology is
in general enabled to refer each to its proper divi-
sion; but I shall not at present particularize these,
but shall proceed to the genus Sphinx. This
genus is distinguished by the slightly angular or
prismatic form of the antennae or horns, which are
generally short in proportion to the animal; and
by a peculiar thickness of the body, which in
most terminates in a point. The name of Sphinx
is applied to this genus from the favourite posture
often assumed by the Caterpillars of many species;
which have a habit of slightly raising the fore-part
of their body in such a manner as to bear some re-
semblance to the figure of the Egyptian Sphinx.
In this genus are many insects of great beauty and
elegance ; particularly among the exotic species.
Most of their Caterpillars undergo their change
into chrysalis at a considerable depth beneath the
MACHAOIS
i8o3Oct'.j.2.i>/ni0nfui)ii/hcd br
Street.
Spfa. ocellata.
J20
LECTURE IX. 109
surface of the ground, into which they retire at the
time of their approaching change ; and after lying,
in some species a few weeks, in others many
months, the chrysalis, by the motions of the in-
cluded animal, forces itself up to the surface, and
gives birth to the Insect in its perfect form. The
insects of this genus are often called Hawk-Moths
by the English collectors.
The genus Phalcena or Moth is distinguished by
sharp-pointed horns, which in many species are
simple, and in many are beautifully barbed or
feathered along the sides. This genus, like that
of Butterfly, is so very numerous, that it is di-
vided into many sections, instituted from the habit
or general appearance of the animals, combined
with some other circumstances. These I shall not
particularize, but shall merely observe that of one
or two of the leading species. Of all the European
Moths by far the most magnificent is the Phal^ia
Junonia, a name which I have myself applied to
it, in order the more effectually to separate it from
some smaller species of similar appearance, with
which Linnaeus has conjoined it. It often mea-
sures six inches in breadth, when expanded, and is
found in Germany, France, and Italy, where its
110 LECTURE IX.
Caterpillar, which is very large and beautiful, feeds
on the leaves of apple and pear-trees and some
others. The complete insect exhibits a beautiful
assemblage of different shades of grey, and each
wing is marked in the middle by a most elegant
and conspicuous eye-shaped spot.
The Phalcena Cecropia of Linnaeus is a very
fine insect, and is not uncommon in many parts of
North- America. Its Caterpillar is of a green co-
lour and a remarkable appearance, and has been
elegantly represented in the beautiful work on the
Insects of North-America by a Mr. Abbot, ac-
companied by excellent notes and illustrations by
our celebrated botanist Dr. Smith of Norwich.
I shall proceed to give a general explanation
of the remaining Linnaean Classes of Insects.
The Class Neuroptera or Nerve-Winged, or
Fibre-ringed Insects consists of such as have four
large wings, furnished with very conspicuous
nerves, fibres, or ramifications dispersed over
the whole wing. This order is exemplified in
those elegant and very common Insects called
Dragon-Flies, as well as in May-Flies, and many
others. I shall content myself with giving as an
illustration of this order the common English
LECTURE IX. Ill
Dragon-Fly, or Libellula varia. It is a large and
beautiful Insect, seen chiefly towards the decline
of summer, principally in the neighbourhood of
watry places ; it has a very large head, with con-
spicuous eyes, large transparent wings, with black
veins, and a very long body, richly variegated
with blue and black. It is of a very rapacious
nature and preys on the smaller insects, but is
perfectly destitute of any sting as vulgarly sup-
posed, and is incapable of injuring any of the
larger animals. It proceeds from a larve which
inhabits the water, and is of a very peculiar and
unpleasant form. During its larve state, which
continues at least two years, it is as rapacious
as when in its complete form, preying on the
smaller kind of Water- Insects. When the period
is arrived at which it is to give birth to the
Dragon-Fly, it ascends the stem of some water
plant, and by a few efforts, breaks open the skin
of the back, when the enclosed Dragon-Fly gra-
dually liberates itself from its confinement; its
wings which are at first very short, tender, and
contracted, gradually expanding themselves to
their full size, like those of a Butterfly when
newly emerged from its chrysalis. In the space
112 LECTURE IX,
of about half an hour the change is complete,
and the same animal which before that time would
have been killed by any long exposure to the
air, would now be as effectually destroyed by
submersion under water.
The celebrated Insect called the Ephemera
belongs to this Order, and proceeds likewise from
an aquatic larve. The common May-Fly or
Trout-Fly is a species of Ephemera, which
emerges from its chrysalis chiefly in the month
of May. But the most celebrated animal of the
genus is that described by the famous Swammer-
dam and held up as the most curious instance
of the brevity of animal life, since, when one
arrived at its complete or perfect form, it lives
only about six hours. It must be recollected
however that the animal has lived three years in
its former or lava state, so that its brevity of life is
only to be referred to that of its complete or
perfect form. The size of this remarkable animal,
which is not a native of England, but is common
in many parts of Europe, is given on the plate we
are viewing. Its colour is white, with a yellowish
body, and the larva is of a pale brown.
The Insects of this genus have one particu-
j larva in the first years arcw&i
z larva fidl grown
3 male Eph
4 femafc Eph
LECTURE IX. 113
larity iil their history which is unexampled in
that of any other. This consists in the double
change of the winged insect, which as soon as
it springs from the chrysalis, flies to some ad-
joining body, and then again divests itself of its
skin, that of the wings themselves not excepted.
The Order Hymenoptera consists of Insects
with four membranaceous wings, but not remark-
ably fibrous as in the former Order*. It contains
all the Wasp and Bee tribe ; the Ichneumons and
a variety of others. The general history of the
Bee and Wasp tribe being pretty familiar to
most persons, I shall confine myself to an ex-
ample or two from the genus Ichneumon, the habits
of which, so far as relates to the production of their
young, are peculiarly singular. The genus Ichneu-
mon is distinguished by long, slender antennas,
with a great many joints, and by the very slender-
process which connects the breast with the body
of the animal, and which in many species appears
like a kind of footstalk.
* They are also furnished in general with a sting or
piercer, which in some is innocent, while in others it is calcu-
lated for the discharge of a highly acrimonious or poisonous
fluid, as in wasps and bees.
LECT. II. I
1*4 LECTURE IX.
These insects deposit their eggs in the bodies
of other living Insects, and generally in those of
Caterpillars. For this purpose the female Ichneumon
selects her victim, and in spite of all the efforts of
the tormented animal, pierces its skin, and deposits,
her eggs beneath : the Caterpillar after the first
pain is over appears to suffer nothing ; but after
a few days the inclosed eggs hatch, and the larvas of
the Ichneumons are nourished by the juices of the
Caterpillar, which at length dies in consequence ,
but sometimes not till it has undergone its change
into a chrysalis.
Some very minute Ichneumons deposit their
eggs in even the eggs themselves of Moths and
Butterflies. So small are some species of this very
numerous genus.
The next Order, called Diptera, consists of
Insects with two wings only, as the whole race of
Flies, strictly so called, as well as Gnats and 3
great variety of other Insects.
All the real Flies, or those of the genus Musca,
are derived from Maggots, which have themselves
been hatched from the eggs deposited by the
parent Flies. But of these Maggots many differ
greatly from each other both in form as well as
LECTURE IX. 115
in manner of life and place of residence, some
living on putrid animal substances, some on the
smaller insects ; and some are of an aquatic na-
ture. Some Flies, as a species greatly allied to
the common Window- Fly for instance, are ovi-
viviparous, producing living Maggots, which have
themselves been first hatched internally.
The Common Gnat belongs to a genus called
Culetfy and is sufficiently known to supersede the
necessity of particular description. It deposits
its eggs in groupes on the surface of stagnant wa-
ters, and the young during their larva state are of a
very peculiar appearance. When changed into the
chrysalis state they are still loco-motive, and when
ready for the production of the perfect Insect spring
to the surface of the water, and give birth to it.
In the genus called QEstrus or Gad-Fly the
eggs are laid by the parent insect in the skin of
the backs of Cattle, in one species; in others in
the nostrils and other parts of Deer and Sheep :
the larves, when arrived at their full size, creep
out, and retiring beneath the surface of the grass
or under any convenient body, change into a
chrysalis, from which in a certain space springs
tfye animal in its ultimate form.
116 LECTURE IX.
The last Order of Insects is called Aptera, and
comprises Wingless Insects. It consists, according
to Linnseus, of the Crab and Lobster tribe, of Spi-
ders, Scorpions, Centipedes, Monoculi, Mites, and
many other Insects. But, as I have before ob-
served, some of the French zoologists have been
inclined to dismiss the Crab and Lobster tribe,
the Monoculi, &c. from the class of Insects. The
Crabs and Lobsters, as is well known, cast their
skins annually, the body shrinking before the
change, and enabling them easily to draw out
their limbs from the shell : the animal being then
in a weak and tender state, remains in some quiet
retreat till its new shell is completely grown.
This genus is excessively numerous, and some of
the species are extremely small. The larger ani-
mals of the kind, as the larger kind of Crabs
for instance, possess the extraordinary power of
casting off at pleasure any limb that happens to
be accidentally maimed or bruised, instead of
waiting for a gradual convalescence : a new limb
is soon afterwards formed, which gradually sup-
plies the place of that which had been voluntarily
cast off.
The Scorpions, forming the genus Scorpio of
1??
SCOL
dmeri&muj
LECTURE IX. 117
Linnaeus, are distinguished by their oblong body,
eight legs ; two large claspers or claws in front,
and long, jointed tail, furnished at the tip with a
crooked and very sharp-pointed sting, provided
with a poisonous fluid, which is injected into the
wound caused by the sting. The Common or
Italian Scorpion measures about three inches from
the head to the end of the tail, and is of a reddish-
brown colour. It is very common in the warm
parts of Europe, and though its sting causes pain-
ful symptoms yet it is rarely productive of any
real danger. But the Great African Scorpion,
with a body as large as a Crawfish, and measuring
eight or nine inches from the head to the tip
of the tail, is a far more dangerous animal, and its
sting is said to be often fatal. It is found in the
hotter regions of Africa.
I shall only mention one or two more genera
of the Apterous or Wingless Insects. The genus
Arama or Spider has eight eyes, situated separate
from each other on the top of the head. The
mouth is armed with two strong fangs or holders,
the tips of which are each furnished with a small
hole or slit, through which is discharged a poi-
sonous fluid, sufficient to destroy or kill the mi-
118 LECTURE IX.
nute animals on which Spiders prey. The legs
are eight in number, and at the end of the body
are four or five small teats or organs through
which the animal draws its thread. Each of these
teats is pierced with a vast number of holes through
each of which proceeds a distinct thread, and the
animal can either draw its thread from all the
holes at once or by any particular number; in
short what we call a single spider's thread may
consist, according to some computists, pf not less
than six thousand distinct filaments. The size to
which the European spiders arrive is not very
great, but the hotter regions of Africa and Ame-
rica produce spiders of a size so gigantic as to be
formidable even to birds and many other animals
on which they prey. One of the chief of these is
the Aranea Avicularia or Bird-catching Spider, of
which very capital specimens may be seen in the
JLeverian Museum. These Spiders are found
principally in the hotter parts of South- America.
The genus called Acarus or Mite contains the
smallest of all known Insects, as well as some of
considerable size. The mites are a very numerous
race. The generic character consists in having
eight legs, and in many species a kind of claspers,
LECTURE IX. 119
operating as a pair of additional legs. The body
is of a thick and roundish shape ; in some specfes
nearly globular, and in others flattish. The com-
mon Cheese-Mite or Acarus Siro of Linnaeus is
a familiar example of the genus. It proceeds from
an egg deposited by the parent insect, and is at
its first hatching, perfectly like the parent except
in size, and in wanting the third pair of legs,
which do not make their appearance till after the
first casting of its skin. The Mite is beset with
long hairs, and if it be accurately surveyed by
the microscope, it will be found that these hairs
are not of a simple structure, but are bearded
along the sides in the manner of the bristles on
an ear of barley.
To the genus Acarus or Mite belongs a very
curious Insect popularly known by the name of
the Harvest Bug, which is of a bright scarlet
colour, and so very small as to be but just visible
to a good eye without the assistance of a glass.
In the middle of summer, or rather towards
its decline, this little animal is often pecu-
liarly troublesome by attaching itself to the skin
of those who walk among long grass or through
corn fields.
120 LECTURE IX.
It is even to a species of Mite that the cuta-
neous disorder so common among the vulgar of al-
most all nations has been supposed to owe its exist-
ence. At least it is certain that a particular disorder
of that kind is really caused by a very small spe-
cies of Mite, which insinuates itself beneath the cu-
ticle and causes extreme irritation , This disorder,
though not often noticed by modern physicians,
appears to have been well known in this country
about the time of Queen Elizabeth ; and is very
distinctly recorded by Mquffet in, riis History
of Jnsects. The animal has hardly any where
been figured with sufficient exactness except in
the work of Baron Degeer, 'Jhe figure we at
present view is a very correct representation of
the animal, which is of a white colour, with
reddish brown head and hind-legs: it is chiefly
distinguished as a species by having the two pair
of fore-legs excessively thick at their origin, and
terminating in a slender tube; while the four
hind-legs proceed from a very narrow base, then
suddenly enlarge into an oval shape, and from
thence gradually stretch into a long and sharp*
pointed bristle.
EILACK SI.HTG
LlJMA'X
Spotte
LECTURE X.
JL HE Mollusca or soft-bodied animals, are, in
the Linnasan arrangement, divided into such as are
destitute of a shelly covering, and such as are fur-
nished with one. In our present lecture we shall
turn our attention to the first of these tribes, or
Soft- bodied Animals without any truly shelly or
very hard integument, though some of them, as
we shall perceive when we arrive at such particu-
lar genera, have a kind of coriaceous, and even a
crustaceous covering. In giving a view of the
Linnaean Mollusca, it is not my intention to pass
formally through every genus, but to select as ex-
amples such as are either most important or most
curious.
The genus Lima#9 which stands first on the
list, may be considered as important ; since it
forms, as it were, the type or pattern of most of
122 LECTURE X.
the Animals inhabiting the univalve, spiral shells,
whose inhabitants are formed on the same plan.
The genus Limax or Slug is characterized by hav-
ing an oblong body, furnished above with a fleshy
shield, and beneath with a flattened expansion,
answering the purpose of a foot or locomotive or-
gan. On the right side of the breast is a large
orifice ; and on the front of the head are four
feelers or tentacula, or, as they are popularly
termed, horns. The most familiar example of this
genus is the common black Slug, generally called
the black Snail, so frequently seen in fields and
gardens in damp weather. There is also another
species, rather larger and of a brown colour, found
in similar situations ; but the largest of the Bri-
tish species is the Limax maximus of Linnaeus,
which somewhat exceeds the size of both the for-
mer, and is of a pale greyish-brown colour, spot-
ted and streaked with black. All these animals
feed entirely on vegetables, and are produced from
whitish gelatinous eggs, deposited in shady situa-
tions, beneath the surface of the ground. In al-
most all particulars, except in not being furnish-
ed with a shell, they resemble the common or
Garden Snails.
BOB
]D'( ATA
LECTURE X. 123
The marine Genus Aplysia, is nearly allied to
that of Umax, but of a somewhat more compli-
cated structure.
The genus Doris, which is also marine, is
greatly allied to that of Limax, and the species,
which are numerous, are often called by the name
of sea-snails. Among these one of the most com-
mon is the Doris papillosa of Linnaeus ; of the size
and colour of the brown slug, but covered or
bristled over with numerous, soft, pointed processes.
The Linnsean species of the genus Doris differ so
considerably in habit or general appearance in the
different tribes, that Monsr. Cuvier and others
have instituted for them several distinct genera,
instead of grouping them all together, as Linnaeus
has done. Among the most beautiful is the Doris
radiata of the Gmelinian edition of the Systema
Naturae. It is found in the Atlantic ocean, and
is about an inch in length, of a very fine deep-
blue colour, accompanied by a silvery lustre, and
is distinguished, as a species, by having on each
side the body three pair of spreading tufts or pro-
cesses, of a blue colour, and each consisting of se-
veral distinct, diverging rays or fibres. I have be-
fore observed that it is not my intention to pass with
124 LECTURE X.
punctilious exactness through all the Linnsean ge-
nera of the Mollusca Nuda, and I shall therefore se-
lect only the chief or principal kinds. Some of these
genera contain animals of a long worm-like form,
and seem, as it were, to connect in some degree the
insect tribe with that of the Vermes , since, at first
view they much resemble the animals of the genus
Scolopendra or Centipede among Insects. Of these
the genus Nereis may be taken as an example. The
generic character consists in having a long body,
furnished along each side with groups of feather-
shaped tentacula, or feelers, according to Linnaeus,
but which, in reality, are to be considered as so
many branchiae or respiratory organs. The most
conspicuous species is the Nereis gigantea of Lin-
naeus, measuring from twelve to fifteen inches in
length, about three quarters of an inch in breadth,
and furnished along each side, from head to tail,
with a triple row of the above-mentioned feather-
shaped organs. Its colour is brown, with irides-
cent variations, according to the cast of light. In
the Gmelinian Edition of the Systema Naturae of
Linnceus this animal is more properly referred to
a genus called Terebella, and is the Terebella ca»
runculata of that edition.
LECTURE X. 125
In the Linnaean genus Nereis also stands an
extremely minute species, so very small as to re-
quire the assistance of a microscope in order to be
distinctly examined. It has however been raised
to a kind of importance from having been sup-
posed by Linnasus the chief cause of. the luminous
appearance of sea-water by night ; since on tak-
ing up vessels full of sea-water, when the sea has
appeared most brilliant, this microscopic species of
Nereis has been observed in it in great plenty.
The Medusas however, and a great many other
marine animals, are of a phosphorescent nature,
and appear luminous during the night, so that the
Nereis noctiluca of Linnaeus cannot be considered
as the chief cause of the phenomenon.
This circumstance induces me to mention one
of the new genera of marine mollusca lately insti-
tuted by the French naturalists, under the name
of Pyrosoma. It is described and figured in the
work entitled " Annales du Museum National
d'Histoire Naturelle." This animal, (for there is
only one species yet discovered) is of a lengthened
and tubular form, open at one extremity, and
closed at the other : the body is scattered over with
numerous soft papilla? or tubercles, and there is
126 LECTURE x.
no appearance of any regular viscera or inter-
nal organs, but the whole presents a continued
vacuity. The colour of this curious animal, when
at rest, is a pale greenish blue ^ but when in mo%
tion, which is performed by the alternate con-
traction and dilatation of the body, the whole
appears in the highest degree of phosphoric lustre,
passing through all the colours of a bar of red-
hot iron, till at length it becomes of what is term-
ed a white-heat ; after which it again passes into
the colour of red-hot iron, and from that gra-
dually declines into its original greenish hue. The
length of this animal is that of several inches, and
its diameter about a fourth or fifth of its length.
It is a native of some particular parts of the At-
lantic Ocean, where it is seen in great multitudes,
and irradiates the waves with its fiery brilliancy.
Linnaeus would perhaps have been inclined to have
made it a species of Holothuria.
In the enlarged edition of the Sy sterna Natu-
rae by Gmelin, some of the small fresh- water spe-
cies of the Linnaean genus Nereis are more pro-
perly referred to a new and distinct genus, under
the name of Nats. As an example of this genus
jnay be mentioned a very small, transparent, and
fubti/hed 6y £2icarjlcy jftcct Street.
t'M'ffi *fClt//J.
LECTURE X. 127
elegantly formed worm of about half an inch in
length, not uncommon in stagnant waters, and call-
ed the Nais proboscidea, or long- snouted Nais, since,
if accurately inspected, it will appear to be furnish-
ed with a very long, transparent proboscis, which
continues always stretched out, the animal being
incapable of retracting it. This species, like some
other of the smaller Vermes, possesses in a high
degree the power of reproduction, and if cut or
broken, each part will survive, and reproduce its
defective organs.
But, by far the most remarkable of all the Lin-
naean genera of the Mollusca nuda or Shell-less Mol-
lusca is that of Sepia, in English Cuttle or Ink"
Fish. The genus Sepia or Cuttle is distinguished
by having a fleshy and somewhat lengthened body,
seated or enveloped in a kind of sheath, reaching
yearly to the head of the animal. The head is
furnished with very large eyes, and a horny, cen-
tral beak, consisting of two mandibles, and resem-
bling that of a parrot. Round the base of the
head arise eight long arms, in a radiated direc-
tion, and in some species are two additional
arms, of a much greater length than the rest. , All
these arms are beset, on their internal surface,
128 LECTURE X.
with numerous, round, concave cups, or suckers,
which adhere so strongly to whatever substance
the animal chuses to attach itself to, as not to be
separated without great force.
Exclusive of these characters, the animals of
this genus are furnished with an internal pouch or
receptacle, filled with a very dark- coloured fluid,
in some species intensely black : this fluid they
discharge at pleasure through a tubular orifice
situated at the base of the breast.
The most common European species of this
genus is the Sepia QJfitinalis of Linnaeus, generally
known by the name of the Cuttle-Fish. This ani-
mal, which, at its full growth, measures about two
feet in length, is of a pale bluish-brown colour,
with the skin marked by numerous dark-purple
specks. Imbedded in the back or fleshy part of
the body of this species is always found a large
oblong-oval, calcareous bone, of a cellular tex-
ture, and which is of so light a nature as to float
in water. It has been supposed that the animal
has the power of filling the minute cellules of this
bone with air, or of exhausting them of it at plea-
sure, in order to ascend or descend with the great--
er facility. This bone of the Cuttle-Fish is often
.1.
J
bone of d° wit/i
,fcctivn of the
\FJSM
LECTURE X. 129
found in considerable quantities, cast on the
shores, and forms a small article of commerce,
being used for various purposes by different arti-
ficers. It also serves, when reduced to powder, as
a good common dentifrice, and is indeed con-
sidered as one of the most innocent that can be
used for that purpose.
The anatomy of the Cuttle-Fish is highly
curious, and has long ago been detailed by Swam-
merdam and others ; and was even not unknown
to the ancients. The animal is furnished with a
pair of large lungs or respiratory organs, situated
nearly as in quadrupeds, but they are constituted
on a different principle, and are more allied to the
gills of Fishes. The most striking particularity
however in this animal is that of having three dis-
tinct hearts : these are situated in the form of a
triangle, and the lowest of the three is larger than
the rest. The eyes, which in this whole genus are
remarkably large, are covered, as in Eels and some
other fishes, by the common skin, which is trans-
parent in those parts. The pupil of the eye appears
double, and the internal cavity of the eye is lined
with a purplish-coloured mucus, which causes the
eyes of the living animal to appear phosphoric or
LECT. II, K
130 LECTURE X.
fiery in a high degree : the exterior coat or ball
of the eye is remarkably strong, so as to seem
almost calcareous, and is when taken out of a
brilliant pearl-colour, and they are worn in some
particular parts of Italy, and in the Grecian islands
by way of artificial pearls in necklaces. The
Cuttle-Fish, like the rest of its tribe, is of a pre-
dacious nature, and feeds on fishes, shell-fish, and
other marine animals, and is, no doubt, a highly
formidable adversary; since it possesses the power
of fastening itself so closely by the assistance of
the suckers or cups of its arms, that no animal,
unless of very considerable size and strength, can
be supposed to liberate itself from its grasp. Its
favourite residence is between the vacuities or
clefts of submarine rocks, where it is generally
sure of meeting with plenty of food, and, in defect
of which, in such situations, it occasionally sallies
out into the ocean in pursuit of prey. During
these excursions, on the approach either of danger
to itself, or the more easily to prevent the escape
of its intended prey, it discharges, from the tubu-
lar orifice at the breast, a quantity of the black
fluid with which it is always amply provided; and
thus obscures or darkens the water to a great disi
LECTURE X. 131
tance round. This practice of the Cuttle-fish was
well known to the ancients. Our own celebrated
countryman, Mr. Ray, draws from this circum-
stance a singularly apposite and witty illustration ;
and observes that an obscure and prolix author
may not improperly be compared to a Cuttle-Fish,
since he may be said to hide himself under his
own ink ! The black liquor or ink of the Cuttle-
Fish, when collected, and dried, splits gr cracks
into fragments, which being then ground down,
and redissolved in water, form an exquisite Ink,
of the most durable blackness ; and the well-known
Chinese preparation, commonly called Indian-Ink,
is, in reality, supposed to be no other than the
concrete juice of the Cuttle-Fish, carefully managed,
perfumed, and at length formed into the orna-
mented cakes or masses in which we receive it.
I should here observe that all the species of the
genus Sepia are provided with a similar fluid,
which they use for similar purposes ; but that of
the Common Cuttle-Fish is of a deeper or blacker
colour than in most other kinds. In some species
it is of a reddish-brown colour, and from it is pre-
pared by the Chinese the brown and reddish-brown
varieties of Indian-Ink which are sometimes seen*
132 LECTURE X.
The Ancient Romans, as appears from several
passages in their writings, made use of the juice of
the Cuttle-Fish by way of an ink, but they seem
to have been unacquainted with any other mode
of preparing it than that of merely mixing or dis-
solving it in water. The female Cuttle-Fish
deposits its eggs in numerous clusters, on the
stalks of fuci, on corals, about the projecting sides
of rocks, or on any other convenient substances.
These eggs, which are of the size of small filberds,
and of a black colour, are popularly known by the
name of sea- grapes: each individual egg is of an
oval shape, but with a somewhat sharpened point;
the young proceeds from it complete in all its parts,
and differing from the parent animal in no other
respect than that of size.
The Calamary^ Loligo, Pen-Fish, or Ink- Fish,
is a species scarcely less remarkable than the pre-
ceding. It is of a much more lengthened shape,
of a darker colour, and with the two long additional
arms of greater length in proportion; and on each
side the tail is an expansion or process, forming a
kind of short triangular fnu This animal is also
an inhabitant of the European seas, but is less
common than the Cuttlefish. It has the same
LECTURE X. 133
habit of occasionally darkening the water by the
discharge of its ink. Instead of the remarkable
calcareous bone belonging to the common Cuttle-
Fish, we find in the Calamary a long, thin, trans-
parent, pen-shaped cartilage, of a curious appear-
ance, pointed at the tip of the dilated part, and
semicylindrical at the other end, somewhat repre-
senting the stem of a quill. This is supposed to
be the reason of the name of Calamary, applied to
this species. Its general habits are very similar to
those of the Cuttle-Fish. It is a very prolific animal,
and the eggs are of a very singular and curious ap-
pearance : they are deposited in the form of nume-
rous lengthened groups, radiating from a common
centre, and spreading every way into a circular
form : each egg is of a glassy transparency, and
the young animal may be very distinctly observed
in each, many days before the period of exclusion.
These groups of the eggs of the Calamary are often
seen swimming on the surface, and are occasionally
thrown on shore; the whole groupe sometimes
measures more than a foot in diameter, and from
its general appearance, unless closely inspected,
is often mistaken for a species of Medusa or Sea-
Blubber.
134 LECTURE X.
A more remarkable species than either of the
preceding is the Eight- Armed Cut tie-Fish, or Se-
j)ia Octopodia of Linnaeus. This animal has a
short, oval body, surrounded at the upper part by
an expansile membrane, into the sides of which
are inserted the arms, which are of great length,
beset on the inside with a double row of suckers
or holders, and are all of equal length, or without
an additional long pair as in the two preceding
species of this genus. The eight-armed Cuttle-
Fish, when at full growth, may be considered as a
very formidable animal, and possesses such a de-
gree of strength as to make it dangerous to attack
it without great precaution. Such is the ferocity
and violence with which it defends itself, that even
the strongest Mastiff can hardly subdue it without
a long and doubtful contest. It has even been
known to attack a person while swimming, and to
fasten itself with dangerous force round the body
and limbs. It is supposed that there is something
more than a mere power of adhesion in the aceta-
bula or concave suckers or fasteners with which
the arms of this animal are beset ; something of
an electric or galvanic nattue ; since the pain which
their application causes does not soon cease after
EIGHT ARMED CTJTTIJ: FISH
fleet Stnet.
23?*
-TED CUTTLE FISH /
d if i front, wit/'i o >M f///te oftftcfoak
J3?
CTTTTIJE ¥ISH
rietvedjrom bchmcl
tficS VctrJ.£fi/idon fuMt/hcii l>r
ftcct Street .
LECTURE X. 135
the removal of the animal ; a kind of stinging or
urtication remaining for many hours, and long af-
ter this, a troublesome irritation and itching.
This species arrives at a very large size, being
often seen so large that the body equals the size
of a gourd, while the arms measure from three to
four feet in length, and from nine to twelve in cir-
cumference when spread out in the form of a star,
which is a posture in which the animal frequently
places them. It resides in the deep channels
formed by large rocks, and is generally seen in
pairs. The male is said to wander about in quest
of prey to a certain distance from its recess, while
the female rarely wanders from it. The eggs of
the Eight- Armed Cuttle-Fish are extremely numer-
ous, and are disposed in a kind of grape-like clus-
ter : they are of a glassy transparency, so that the
young animal, as in those of the Calamary, may be
seen in them long before the time of its exclusion.
The Sepiae or Cuttle-Fish in general, were
often called by the ancients by the title of Polypi,
on account of their numerous limbs : they also
possess, like the Polypi of modern Natural His-
tory, a considerable degree of reproductive power ;
136 LECTURE X.
being often seen with limbs which have evidently
been mutilated, and have reproduced.
The Eight- Armed and common Cuttle- Fish are
numbered among the edible marine animals, and
are still used in many parts of Europe as a food.
With the Romans they seem to have been consi-
dered as a delicacy. When boiled, they assume a
red or deep salmon-colour, especially when salted.
The Greeks as well as the Romans are known to
have been in the habit of using the Cuttle as a
food, and it has been supposed, and surely not
without a considerable degree of probability, that
the celebrated plain, but wholesome dish, the
black broth of Sparta, was no other than a kind
of Cuttle-Fish soup, in which the black liquor of
the animal was always added as an ingredient $
being, when recent, of a very agreeable taste.
Mr. Pennant, in the fourth volume of his Bri-
tish Zoology, speaking of the Eight-armed Cuttle,
tells us, he has been well assured from persons
worthy of credit, that in the Indian seas this spe-
cies has been found of such a size as to measure
two fathoms in breadth across the central part,
while each arm has measured nine fathoms in
LECTURE X. 137
length ; and that the natives of the Indian isles,
when sailing in their canoes, always take care to
be provided with hatchets, in order to cut off im-
mediately the arms of such of those animals as
happen to fling them over the sides of the canoe,
Jest they should pull it under water and sink it.
This has been considered as a piece of credulity in
Mr. Pennant, unworthy of a sober naturalist. It
is certain however that a great variety of appa-
rently authentic evidences seem to confirm the
reality of this account. The ancients, it is evi-
dent, acknowledged the existence of animals of
the Cuttle-Fish tribe of a most enormous size$
witness the account given by Pliny and others of
the large Polypus as he terms it, which used to
rob the repositories of salt-fish on the coasts of
Carteia, and which, according to his description,
had a head of the size of a cask that would hold
fifteen amphone ;. arms measuring thirty feet in
length, of such a diameter that a man could hardly
clasp one of them, and beset with suckers or fasten-
ers of the size of large basins that would hold four
or five gallons apiece. The existence in short of
some enormously large species of the Cuttle-Fish
tribe in the Indian and northern seas can hardly be
138 LECTURE X.
doubted; and though some accounts may
been much exaggerated, yet there is sufficient
cause for believing that such species very far sur-
pass all that are generally observable about the
coasts of the European seas. A modern natura-
list chooses to distinguish this tremendous species
by the title of the Colossal Cattle-Fish, and seems
amply disposed to believe all that has been re-
lated of its ravages. A northern navigator of the
name of Dens is said some years ago to have lost
three of his men in the African seas, by a monster
of this kind, which unexpectedly made its appear-
ance while these men were employed, during a
calm, in raking the sides of the vessel. The Colos-
sal Cuttle-Fish seized these men in its arms, and
drew them under water, in spite of every effort to
preserve them : the thickness of one of the armsr
which was cut off in the contest was that of a mi-
zen-mast, and the acetabula or suckers of the size
of pot-lids.
But what shall we say to the idea of a modern
French naturalist, who is inclined to suppose, that
the destruction of the great French ship the Ville
de Paris, taken by the English during the Ameri-
can war, together with nine other ships which
LECTURE X, 139
came to her assistance on seeing her fire signals of
distress, was owing, not to the storm which ac-
companied the disaster, but to a groupe of Colos-
sal Cuttle-Fishes, which happened at that very
time to be prowling about the ocean beneath these
unfortunate vessels ?
These accounts, whether true or false, natu-
rally recal to our recollection the far-famed mon-
ster of the Northern seas, often mentioned in a
vague manner under the name of Kraken or Kor-
ven. The general tenor of these accounts is, that
in some parts of the Northern seas, during the
heat of summer, while the sea is perfectly calm,
a vast mass, resembling a kind of floating island,
about a quarter of a mile in diameter, is seen to
rise above the surface : appearing to be covered
with a profusion of sea-weeds, corals, and other
marine substances. When it is fully risen, it sel-
dom fails to stretch up several enormous arms, of
such a height as to equal that of the masts of a
ship; and after having continued in this position
for some time, it again slowly descends. From
the general description thus given of its shape, it
has been supposed that it is a species of Sepia or
Cuttle-Fish. Linnaeus, in the first edition of his
140 LECTURE X.
\vork entitled Fauna Suecica, as well as in the
earlier editions of his Systema Naturae, seems in-
clined to ^dmit the existence of this animal, and
forms a genus for it under the name of Micro-
cosmus.
The genus Medusa contains a very remark*
able set of marine animals, which are generally
characterized by their soft and almost gelatinous
substance, their rounded and somewhat flattened
shape, their semitransparency, and their numerous
arms or tentacula. The species of this genus are
extremely numerous, and often present an appear-
ance in the highest degree elegant and singular.
They are of various sizes, some measuring one or
two, or even three feet in diameter, while others
are of a size so diminutive as scarcely to equal half
an inch in diameter. One of the most remark-
able of the larger kinds is the Medusa Pulmo,
which is seen in many of the European seas, and
is most common about the coasts of Italy and Si-
cily. It measures from one to two feet in diame-
ter : the body is nearly hemispherical, concave be-
neath, notched into several very slight or shallow
divisions round the edge, and furnished beneath,
with a very large and curious apparatus, consisting
133
MEBUSA
or JtellMeditj-ti m its naturalize fr magnified
'4 6y GJutirstei '.Fleet Street.
LECTURE X. 141
of eight limbs or arms, springing from a central
trunk, dividing into eight large wrinkled lobes,
which are tipped with so many lengthened sub-
triangular processes. The whole animal is of a
glassy transparency, and very much resembles the
appearance of a chandelier or glass lustre. The
Medusa? in general are with extreme difficulty
preserved in their natural appearance, either in
spirits, or by any other method, and many of them
have been but very imperfectly described and
figured in the works of Naturalists. The Medusa
Pulmo, which I have just mentioned, has been
very accurately and elegantly described and re-
presented by Dr, Macri, an Italian physician, who
many years ago published its description. The
species of Medusee differ very much in habit from
each other ; insomuch that several distinct genera
might be instituted from the single Linnrean ge-
nus Medusa. Many species are highly phospho-
ric, and shine during the night with a very bril-
liant lustre. They are of a predacious nature, and
live on the smaller kinds of fishes, and other ma-
rine animals, which, notwithstanding their appa-
jfently tender nature, they are enabled to seize
142 LECTURE X.
with their arms or tentacula, and to absorb by
means of their mouth or central orifice. They are
probably viviparous animals; they are in general
called by the popular title of sea-blubbers, and
are sometimes so very numerous as to float by
thousands on the surface of particular parts of the
sea.
Another very singular genus is that of Holo-
tkuria, of which the characters are, an oblong,
nayant or floating body, furnished at one extre.
mity with several arms, feelers, or tentacula, sur-
rounding the mouth or opening. I shall here ob-
serve, once for all, that many of the Linnaean ge-
nera of the Mollusca are capable of considerable
improvement, and that he has somewhat too fre-
quently associated under one genus, animals not
sufficiently resembling each other in habit or ge-
neral appearance. The most common perhaps of
the European species of the present genus is the
Holothuria tremula ; an animal of a lengthened,
cylindric form, of a purplish-red colour, land beset
on all sides with very numerous soft tubercles of
different sizes; and furnished at its upper end,
round the mouth, with numerous short but cu-
HQLOTBRXA
M'lt/i ICrr h'/ti.' t/IC/' />/<' ff't/l/t ff/l/
LECTURE X. 143
riously branched arms, forming the appearance of
so many clusters : the animal is chiefly a native of
the northern seas.
A much more remarkable species is the Holo-
thuria Phy sails of Linnaeus, generally known to-
sailors by the name of the Portuguese Man of War.
It may be considered as one of the most curious of
all the Mollusca, and resembles in shape an ob-
long transparent bladder, several inches in length,
gharp at one end, and somewhat rounded at the
other ; of a pale purple colour, with deeper veins
or ramifications : along the upper part runs a
slightly elevated ridge or crest, somewhat undulated
or notched on the outline, while from beneath
the large or obtuse end of the animal hang down,
in a perpendicular direction, a great many string-
shaped feelers or processes of a deep purple co-
lour, and of different lengths : lastly, the edges of
the body beneath, are surrounded by a series of
short or abrupt processes of a deep purplish-brown
colour. The appearance of the \vhole is in the>
highest degree singular and elegant. From hav-
ing examined a very fine drawing of this animal,
in its living or recent state, by an artist of great
talent, I am enabled to give its description with
144 LECTURE X.
sufficient accuracy. The figures hitherto given,
such as that in Sloane's Jamaica, and some other
works, exhibit only a general similitude. It is often
confounded with a different species, resembling
it in some degree, but of a much longer or more
slender form, and of a greenish colour, with nu-
merous yellowish-brown tentacula, among which
are two or three central ones far exceeding the
rest in size and length ; of a wrinkled or annu-
lated appearance, and of the richest deep-blue co-
lour. The real structure or anatomy of these ve*
sicular Holothurise seem as yet but very imper-
fectly understood. They are observed to float oc-
casionally, during fine weather, on the surface of
a calm sea, and when taken, have the power of in-
flaming the skin to a considerable degree, if in-
cautiously handled.
The beautiful genus Actinia, from its flower-
like appearance when expanded, called the Sea*
Anemone, is characterized by having an oblong
body, of an extensile and expansile nature, and
adhering by the base to rocks or other marine
substances. The mouth is situated in the centre
of the upper part or disc, and is surrounded by
very numerous, soft, extensile feelers or arms,
TINIA I
INIA CEREITS
or
LECTURE X. US
spreading in the manner of rays, and disposed in
a single, double, or triple series, according to the
different species. The Actinias are very common
on the rocks of most of the European coasts: when
in their contracted state, they have the appear-
ance of inanimate, rounded masses of coloured
pulp or flesh ; and when expanded, they greatly
resemble the appearance of an expanded polype-
talous flower, particularly those of the Anemone
and Ranunculus tribe. One of the most common
British species is the Actinia varia*, found on
most of our coasts, and varying ad infinitum in
its colours, being either red, olive, green, of differ-
ent shades, and either plain or variously spotted :
its principal character, and which distinguishes it
in whatever variety of general colour it may hap-
pen to appear, consists in a row of short bead-like
prominences, surrounding the external row of ten-
tacula : these bead-like processes are invariably of
a bright blue colour. The Actinia varia S. S. in
general measures about two inches in diameter at
the base, but is occasionally seen of far larger size.
A more beautiful species is however found on
Act. Meserabryantheraum. Ellis. GmeL Syst. Nat.
JLECT. II, r
146 LECTURE X.
our own coasts -, generally imbedding itself in the
sand, instead of adhering to rocks ; it is called the
Actinia crassicornis, and is distinguished by its red
colour, and roughish external surface, while the
central or middle part, when expanded, is white,
most elegantly marked near the base of the tenta-
cula with numerous carmine-coloured streaks : the
tentacula themselves being of a pearl-colour, and
of a much thicker gr more swelled appearance
than in most other species. The Actinia crassi-
cornis often measures four, five, or even six inches
in diameter when in its expanded state.
The Actiniae; or Sea-Anemonies are naturally
very voracious animals, preying not only on the
softer sea-animals, but on such as are guarded by
a shelly defence; they swallow various kinds of
univalve shell-fish, the smaller kind of crabs, and
other animals, and when they have absorbed the
juices of their prey, they reject the shell or other
integument by the mouth. When kept in vessels
jof sea-water, which may be easily practised, they
seem to require no particular nutriment, absorb-
ing a sufficient quantity of animal gluten from the
sea-water itself for all the purposes of nutrition.
In this confined state they do not grow or increase
LECTURE X. 147
in size, though they frequently produce a numer-
ous offspring, being of a very prolific nature, and
viviparous. The young are produced of various
sizes, from that of a pin's head to that of half an
inch in diameter, and to the number of five, ten, or
more at a birth. As these animals are allied to the
Polype tribe in some degree, they partake of their
qualities, and will reproduce many of their organs,
when either purposely or accidentally mutilated.
The minuter genera of the Mollusca it would
be tedious and uninteresting to particularize in
the course of a lecture, but the larger and more
remarkable ones justly demand our attention. Of
these the genus Asterias or Star-Fish is one of the
chief: it is rather of a coriaceous pr crustaceou
nature than of that soft cast so common to many
other of the Mollusca* The generic character
consists in having a depressed body, covered by a
coriaceous or tough integument, roughened by
very numerous small processes or tentacula. The
mouth is central, and situated beneath. By far
the greater number of the Sea-Stars pr Asteriae are
of a stellated or radiated shape ; several lengthen-
ed arms or limbs proceeding from the common,
body or central partj so that the animal represents
143 LECTURE X.
the form of a star, as vulgarly painted. In some
the rays or limbs are few in number, and in others
numerous : in the more simple species the prevail-
ing number of the rays is five ; in others ten, ov
twelve. In some the rays, instead of being broad
or thick at the base, are throughout extremely
narrow ; and lastly, some are of a compound and
very numerously-ramified appearance. Several
are natives of the European seas, but the most
striking are of exotic origin. Many have been ad-
mirably figured in the work of Seba, and many in
that of Link, an author who wrote a work on this
genus in particular, accompanied by very numer-
ous plates. As the strong and almost crustaceous
skin of these animals admits of their being easily
preserved in their natural appearance, they are
frequently seen in collections, and many of the
most rare and curious species may be found in the
British and Leverian Museums. Of the simpler
kinds; or those with large, thick rays, the A. reti-
culata is one of the largest, and most elegant; it
often measures a foot in diameter, and is of a yel-
lowish red colour, with the upper surface curiously
tuberculated, and the margins of the rays jointed
in such a manner as to appear as if artificially carv-
ASTJEin :VN 1 ' A I ' 1:' ( > S A
i
or Twelve raved Star Fish
-ffcc/ Streff
LECTURE X. Hi
*d ; while the whole surface of the body is mark-
ed into numerous, slightly-prominent, reticular
spaces of a triangular figure. It is a native of the
Indian seas.
The Ast. Gigas * is of similar size and colour,
and is all over roughened by small pointed pro-
tuberances, which also verge the margins of the
rays : it is a native of the Atlantic, and is well
figured in the magnificent work of Seba.
Of the British species the A. papposa or com-
mon twelve-rayed Star-fish is a good example. Its
colour is a dark yellowish red, and its surface
roughened by very numerous small protuberances.
Its usual number of rays or limits is twelve, but
it varies, from ten or eleven, to thirteen or even
fifteen.
The most curious of the whole tribe is the A.
Caput Medusce of Linnaeus, or Medusa's Head
Star-Fish. It grows to a large extent, measuring
more than two feet in diameter when the limbs
are fully extended. This very extraordinary ani-
mal is first divided into five equidistant, jointed
processes, each of which is soon subdivided into
* A. Giga*. ? Mus, Tessin. pi. 9.
150 LECTURE X.
two other smaller ones } and each of these, at a
somewhat farther distance, into two others, still
smaller; this mode of regular subdivision being
continued to a vast extent, and in the most beau-
tiful gradation of minuteness, till at length the
number of extreme ramifications amounts to se-
veral thousands. By this most curious structure,
the anirnal becomes, as it were, a kind of living
net, and is capable of catching such creatures as
are destined for its prey, by the sudden contrac-
tion of all its innumerable ramifications, and thus
the object is secured beyond all power of escape.
For examples of this animal I must refer to the
British and Leverian Museums.
The Sea-Stars jn general have a very consider-
able degree of reproductive power, and if injured
"by accidental violence, or if one or more of the
limbs be cut or torn off, the animal will in time
be furnished with new ones. They wander about
the ocean in quest of prey, more particularly near
the shores, and feed not only on the softer sea-ani-
mals, but on the smaller shell-fish. Their mouth,
which, as I before observed, is situated beneath,
is armed with hard and sharp teeth, resembling a
Jcind of spines, and converging towards the centre
J38
J7ic ^'lit/if a t't/i ///<*
:EC:I-! Gsnrs Escnus
or C0/?utw/i Sett U~rcJu'n
/i'H fubli/Jtil hi- GJTciirs
LECTURE X. 151
of the mouth, and differing in number in the dif-
ferent species. I should not omit to observe that
the curious species last mentioned, the Medusa's
Head Star-Fish, is chiefly confined to the Indian
seas, but is sometimes found in those of Europe.
Those who may wish for a particular description
of the anatomy of the Star-fishes, may consult the
observations of Reaumur on this subject, publish-
ed in the Memoirs of the French Academy.
The concluding genus of the Linnaean Mollus-
ca Nudct, or such as have not a true shelly inte-
grant, is called Echinus or Sea-Urchin. Its ap-
pearance is remarkable, the body, which is soft,
being inclosed in a thin, calcareous crust, which
is thickly beset with spines, of different length in
the different species, which are extremely numer-
ous, and vary considerably in habit or general
appearance from each other. The mouth in this
genus is central, placed beneath, and furnished
with five strong, converging, bony teeth or spines.
The most familiar example of the genus is the
common or edible Sea- Urchin ; the Echinus escu-
lentus of Linnaeus, so very frequently seen on
many of our own coasts. Its shape is nearly glo-
bular, but slightly flattened beneath, and some-
152 LECTURE X.
times measures four inches or more in diameter.
The body, or soft part within the shell, is mark-
ed, as it were, into a kind of lobes or divisions, not
much unlike those of the pulp of an orange ; the
intestines are disposed in a somewhat circular di-
rection, and the whole body is internally support-
ed by a set of upright bony columns. On the
outside of the shell, which is generally of a dull
violet-colour, and sometimes greenish, are seated
a prodigious number of sharp, moveable spines,
curiously articulated with the tubercles of the sur-
face, and connected by strong ligaments. These
spines are the instruments of motion, by the assist-
ance of which the animal conveys itself at plea-
sure to any particular spot ; and so tenacious are
they of the vital principle, that, on breaking the
shell, the several fragments have been sometimes
seen to walk off in different directions. Between
the spines, disposed in, continued longitudinal
rows or series, on the different divisions of the
shell, are an infinite number of small holes, com-
municating with tentacula or feelers placed above
them : these feelers are the instruments by whidi
the creature fixes itself at pleasure to any object,
and stops its motion ; they are possessed of a very
LECTURE X. 153
high degree of contractile power, and are furnish-
ed at the extremity with a slightly expanded tip,
which acts as a sucker or fastener. By these feel-
ers also the Echinus takes its prey, fastening ea-
sily on any small shell-fish in its way, and securing
it, by applying to the shell the tips of its feelers
and dragging it to its mouth. This species is
considered as no unpleasant article of food, and
was a dish well known to the ancient Romans*
The internal structure of the spines, if closely ex-
amined, will be found to bear a considerable re-
semblance to those of the hedge-hog, the general
structure being the same in both, though the one
is of a horny, and the other of a calcareous sub-
stance. To particularize the Exotic Echini would
be an endless task. Among the most remarkable
species is the flattish-bodied Indian Echinus, with
extremely large, thick, club-shaped spines, of a
violet colour, barred with white. This curious
species, with several of its most remarkable va-
rieties, occurs in the highest perfection in the Le-
verian Museum. The shells of the Echini in ge-
neral, when dried, and divested of their spines,
generally present a very elegant and beautiful
appearance, the pattern of the jointed subdivisions
154 LECTURE X.
of the shell or crust varying in the different spe-
cies, and the general colour being of a reddish or
yellowish' cast. \Ve may observe here, that many
different species of this genus occur very fre-
quently in a fossil state; sometimes imbedded in
chalk, and sometimes in flint.
I have now passed through the chief tribes of
the Mollusca nuda, or the Soft-bodied animals des-
titute o*f a stony shell ; and shall in my next lec-
ture proceed to the shelly or testaceous tribe.
LECTURE XL
JL HE Linnaean Mollusca Testacea, or Soft-bo-
died Animals furnished with Shells, are divided into
three assortments, called Univalves, Bivalves, and
Multivalves ; meaning, that the shelly cover con-
sists either of one, two, or several parts or valves.
A Univalve Shell may be exemplified by that
of the common snail ; for the shell is simple or un-
divided. A Bivalve Shell may be exemplified by a
Muscle, in which, as every one knows, the shell is
composed of two pieces or valves ; and lastly a
Multivalve Shell may be exemplified by any spe-
cies of Lepas or Bernacle, in which the shelly co-
vering of the animal is formed of several pieces or
divisions.
The animals inhabiting by far the greater part
of the Univalve shells are formed on the plan of
the common Garden Snail, to which they bear a
great general resemblance, though furnished, in
156 LECTURE XL
the different genera, or sets, with some particular
parts or organs not to be observed in Snails ; and
the Snails themselves are formed on the plan of
the genus Limax or Slug, which, as I mentioned
at our last meeting, may be considered as the ar-
chetype or pattern of most of the animals of the
univalve shells,
The animals inhabiting the bivalve shells are
formed on a different plan, and, except in a few
particular instances, bear a general resemblance
to the animal of the muscle and the oyster, and
are closely allied to the Linnaean genera of the
Naked Mollusca called Tethys and Ascidia,
The animals of the Multivalve Shells vary con-
siderably in their structure; for while some are
shaped like the animals of the Bivalves, others are
formed like those of the major part of the Urii-
valves ; that is they have a snail-like shape ; and
lastly, others are of a habit or appearance totally
differing from any of the Univalve or Bivalve
tribes, and peculiar to themselves and to the ge-
nus Triton among the naked Mollusca.
The most striking deviation from the general
plan of Nature in the Univalve shells is exhibited
in the Linneean genus Argonauta or Argonaut ;
LECTURE XI. 157
t
the principal species of which are inhabited by
animals of an appearance so widely remote from
that of the rest of the shell-tribe, and so closely al-
lied to the genus Sepia or Cuttle, as scarcely to
differ except in the circumstance of having two of
the arms furnished towards the tip with a very
large, expanded, oval membrane, by the assist-
ance of which it is enabled to sail along the sur-
face of the sea, when calm, in any particular di-
rection, and on the least appearance of danger to
submerge itself by suddenly contracting its webbed
arms, and withdrawing them into the shell.
The principal species of the genus Argonauta,
the first of the Univalves in the Linnsean arrange-
ment, is well known to the shell-collectors by
the name of the Paper Nautilus* This shell,
which grows to a very considerable size, some-
times measuring near ten inches in length, is of
an appearance uncommonly elegant, representing
a kind of boat or vessel, of a slightly compressed
shape, gradually widening towards the tip or
mouth, and turning up at the back part into a spi-
ral curvature. The whole shell, which is scarcely
thicker than common paper, of a white colour,
and semitransparent, is marked throughout its.
158 LECTURE XL
whole surface by very numerous, deeply- impress-
ed, obliquely-descending furrows ; and the keel or
bottom is tuberculated along each side by the pro-
jecting tips of the furrowed part of the shell. This
shell, with its inhabiting animal, sailing along the
surface in fine weather, has from very remote
times attracted the admiration of mankind, and
has been celebrated as having given the first hint
for the practice of navigation, as if man, with all
his powers of mind, was unable to conceive the
possibility of swimming or sailing in a boat upon
the water, without first receiving a hint from the
inhabitant of a shell ! This is the species to which
the well-known lines of Pope allude, and which
have been so often quoted on the subject, that not-
withstanding their real beauty, they may be consi-
dered as almost vulgarized by frequent repetition*
" Learn of the little Nautilus to sail,
t! Spread the thin oar, and catch the rising gale.''
/ »
As the animal which thus sails in the shell called
the Paper Nautilus is not fastened to the shell by
any connecting tendon, like the rest of the testa-
ceous tribe, but has the power of leaving the shell
at pleasure, and as its appearance is widely differ-
NAUTILUS
/// different I't
LECTURE XI.
ent from the rest, and exactly similar in all re-
spects to the genus Sepia or Cuttle, except in
having expansile membranes at the two foremost
arms, a suspicion has often been entertained, that
it could not be the true or proper inhabitant of
the shell, but that it was some species of Cuttle,
which was a usurper of the shell in which it swam ;
and this suspicion was strengthened by the con-
sideration that many of the Univalve shells are
occasionally inhabited or usurped by some of the
smaller species of the Crab-tribe, as the Cancer
Bernardus, Diogenes, and others.
As the animal of the Paper-Nautilus is ex-
tremely quick-sighted, and descends from the sur-
face on the least appearance of danger, it is very
difficultly obtained, and is principally found after
a storm, during which it is sometimes driven
ashore,
Most of the European naturalists seenr, till
lately, to have coincided in opinion that the ani-
mal was not the real and proper inhabitant of
the shell, notwithstanding the testimony of the
celebrated Dutch observer, Rumphius, who, above
a century ago, during his residence in the island
of Amboyna, had opportunities of examining the
160 LECTURE XL
animal, and who has even described and figured
it with sufficient exactness to prove that it was
not a mere Sepia or Cuttle, but that it was really
furnished with the palmated arms which operated
as sails, and occasionally as oars in swimming.
Rumphius's observations were however, in a great
degree, unknown to the generality of writers, by
being inserted in a work entitled Ephemerides
Naturae Curiosorum.
In the British Museum is a specimen of this
dried and expanded upon paper, accompanied
by a model in wax, seated in the natural shell.
From an inspection of the dried specimen alone
all doubts must vanish as to the real existence
of the animal, and it was from this specimen,
assisted by the model, that the figure which I my-
self caused to be published of the Paper-Nautilus
in the act of sailing was executed.
This figure of the animal seated in the shell is
the first that has been given since the days of
Rumphius. Being particularly solicitous on this
subject, I requested the late Professor Sibthorpe of
Oxford, to attend, during his travels, to the history
of this animal, and to endeavour by every possible
method to obtain a specimen, in order to remove
LECTURE XI. 161
any uncertainty that might still remain. By good
fortune he succeeded in the attempt, and brought
back a middle-sized specimen of the shell with the
animal in it. This I examined, and had the fur-
ther satisfaction to find that it exactly coincided
with all that had been said by those who believed
it to be the real inhabitant-animal of the shell. The
two membranes were still wider in proportion than
in any figure yet represented; and on each side the
body was a very numerous groupe of small eggs.
These I examined in order to find whether the em-
bryo-animal with its shelly covering existed in the
egg, which would at once have been an experimen-
tum crucis on the subject; but the eggs were not
sufficiently advanced to shew this particular. Since
that time however specimens of the animal in its
shell have been brought to the French National
Museum, and on an examination of the eggs in
these specimens, it appears that the embryo-ani-
mal is furnished, like snails and other shell animals,
with the shell, even while yet in the egg ; so that
no farther doubt now remains of the Cuttle-shaped
animal inhabiting the Paper Nautilus being the
true and natural inmate of the shell. I have
been the more particular on this subject, since
LECT. u. M
162 LECTURE XL
some of the latest writers, and even Lamark and
Cuvier, were doubtful ; or rather, gave into the no-
tion of the shell being inhabited by an animal
which was not its constructor.
It now remains to describe, as shortly as pos-
sible, the animal itself; and this will be best done
by saying, that the species of Sepia or Cuttle-Fish
which it most resembles is the Common Eight-
Armed Cuttle-Fish, or Sepia Octopodia of Lin-
naeus : the body is oval ; the head furnished with
a parrot-shaped beak, like that animal ; and the
arms, which are eight in number, are of nearly
equal length, each beset on its upper surface with
two rows of suckers or fasteners as in the Cuttle-
Fish, and each of the first or front arms is dilated
on its inner side into a very large oval, semitrans-
parent process or web, which the animal hold-
ing in such a manner as to unite at the edges,
they form a large sail-like concavity, which catch-
ing the gale, enables it at pleasure to navigate the
surface of the sea when calm. The spectacle, as
before observed, has been described by various au-
thors, but by none more elegantly than by Pliny,
whose short and beautiful description has been
generally quoted by modern writers.
AVI M r\l,
i>/ t/te
LECTURE XI. 163
"Among the principal miracles of Nature
(says he) is the animal called Nautilos or Pompi-
los. It ascends to the surface of the sea in a su-
pine posture, and gradually raising itself up, forces
out, by means of its tube, all the water from the
shell, in order that it may swim the more readily ;
then throwing back the two foremost arms, it dis-
plays between them a membrane of wonderful te-
nuity, which acts as a sail, while with the remaining
arms it rows itself along ; the tail in the middle
acting as a helm to direct its course : and thus it
pursues its voyage j and if alarmed by any appear-
ance of danger, takes in the water and descends."
The Paper Nautilus is an inhabitant of the
Mediterranean and Atlantic seas. In the Indian
seas is found a species so similar that it has gene-
rally been considered as a variety : it differs in
having the shell marked into numerous slight tu-
bercles on each side the furrows. This is the va-
riety described by Rumphius, in his account of
its inhabiting animal, observed by him during his
residence at Amboyna. There are other species
and varieties of this genus, which the short limits
of our lectures will not permit us to particularize.
I shall only observe that the supposed species, so
much celebrated under the title of the glass Nau-
164 LECTURE; xi.
tilus, and which is the Argonauta vitreus of Lin-
naeus, (so very rare that hardly more than four or
five specimens are to be found in the European
cabinets) is suspected by an ingenious French Na-
turalist to be rather the internal shelly support or
bone of some kind of unknown Molluscous animal,
than a real and proper shell. Yet, on the, other
hand, we are assured that Monsieur Bonnet has
actually seen the shell sailing like other species
of this genus, to which its inhabiting animal is
greatly allied.
I shall now proceed to the next Linnaean set
or genus of shells, which is almost equally extra-
ordinary with that of Argonauta, and has been
often confounded with it by careless readers of
works on Natural History. This is owing to an
unfortunate similarity of names ; for both have
been called by the general title of Nautilus. Lin-
naeus, in order to prevent confusion, named the
former genus Argonauta, and restricted the gene-
ric name Nautilus to that which we are now go-
ing to consider, and which is in common language
called the Pearly Nautilus, in order to distinguish
it from the Paper Nautilus or Argonauta. The
principal species of the Linnaean genus Nautilus
is the N, Pompilius, a large and strong shell,
NATTTILTTS FOMEILIUS
or Pcwly J\ ^a
Section oftfic S
fv shew the itite/wal jtructurv
i0t>3 OcfaJotulcnJ'ubli/tt d fa- Gfearslcv fleet Street.
LECTURE XI. 165
often measuring five or six inches in length : it is
of a very firm or dense fabric, of a smooth, round-
ed outline, and of a shape somewhat compressed
on the sides, with a very wide opening or mouth,
and with the back-part rolled into a spiral form
within the cavity of the shell. The colour, exter-
nally, is a dull yellowish-white, marked with nu-
merous zebra-like yellowish-brown or dusky bands,
and within of the richest and brightest silvery-
pearl-colour. When the natural pellicle or epi-
dermis of the outside is rubbed off, the whole shell
appears silvery also. The great and striking cha-
racter of the genus however, at least so far as re-
gards the shell, is the extraordinary structure of
the internal part, which is formed into a great
number, (from thirty to forty) separate chambers
or divisions, each communicating with the rest by
a small tubular hole near the centre. The open-
ing or mouth of the shell therefore presents a large
but shallow concavity, pierced with a central or
nearly central hole, and beyond lie all the divi-
sions before-mentioned. The body or chief part
of the inhabiting animal fills up the front or great
concavity, and that only ; while from its extre-
jnity proceeds a slender tail or process, passing
through all the rest of the chambers j and it has
166 LECTURE XI.
been supposed by some, that the animal pos-
sesses the power of at pleasure filling up the
chambers or cavities either with air or water, or
of exhausting them of both occasionally ^ in or-
der to make itself specifically heavier or lighter,
during its navigations; for this animal is also sup-
posed to have a power of sailing, though in a less
perfect manner than the Argonaut or Paper Nau-
tilus. The animal is also indistinctly allied to the
Cuttle-Fish tribe ; having an oval body, with the
front or central part furnished with a parrot-shaped
beak, and surrounded by arms or tentacula ; but
they differ from those of the Sepias or Cuttles
in being very short, extremely numerous, disposed
in several concentric rows or circles, and not be-
set with any visible suckers. From above the neck
or round the upper part of the head rises a large,
concave flap or hood, beset on the inside with nu-
merous but small suckers or concave tubercles.
By the elevation and expansion of this concave flap
or hood the animal of the Pearly Nautilus is sup-
posed to sail. It is of a pale reddish-purple co-
lour, with deeper spots and variegations.
It is remarkable that this animal has also been
described and figured in the works of Rumphius,
but the drawing representing it in its recent and
fa/cc/i out of its S/ictt
Outline vfvne oftfie drifts'
&Searste\'J!'tectSlrvct.
LECTURE XL 16?
natural state was unfortunately lost, and the figure
accompanying the description of that author was
executed from a specimen long preserved in spi-
rits, and which had totally lost its natural appear-
ance. It therefore, of course, gives no distinct
idea of what it was meant to elucidate. From the
time of Rurnphius the animal seems to have re-
mained in great obscurity, till it was lately again
described with accuracy by a French writer, and a
figure, said to be faithful, accompanies the de-
scription, and may be found in the voluminous con-
tinuation of Buffon's Natural History by Sonnini
and others.
The animals of most of the remaining Linnaean
genera of the Univalve Shells are more or less al-
lied in shape to the common Snail, which is itself
allied in a similar manner to the naked or shell-
less animals called Slugs, belonging to the genus
Llmax among the naked Mollusca.
Instead of taking up the time appointed for
this lecture with a mere enumeration of the Lin-
nasan genera of Shells, I shall content myself with
observing that they are admirably constituted on
the principles of true science, and are to be re-
garded as a very high improvement on all former
plans of arrangement ; but that they are to be
168 LECTURE XL
considered rather as forming a general outline
than a minute and strictly accurate illustration of
the subject.
Among those genera whose inhabiting animal
differs from the rest as to its nature, the genus
De.ntalium is an example : the shell is shaped
like an Elephant's tusk in miniature, and its
inhabiting animal is supposed to be allied to a
Terebella. The genus Serpula is of various shape
in the different species, but is generally of an ir-
regularly twisted appearance, resembling a long
tube warped in different directions. Its inhabit-
ant is also supposed to resemble a Terebella.
The genus Teredo is in reality a kind of naked
worm, which lines with a shelly matter the wind-
ing or irregular cavities wrhich it forms in wood or
other substances : its head is armed with a pair of
very strong calcarious or shelly jaws, with which
it works its way into the substance it inhabits,
which is generally the wood of the bottoms of
ships. This is the celebrated and destructive
animal called the Ship-Worm, the Teredo naralis
of Linnaeus,, so formidable for its ravages, and
which hardly any contrivances yet suggested by
human ingenuity have been found fully sufficient
to prevent. Thus a contemptible worm, multiply-
LECTURE XL 159
ing beyond its usual limits, is capable of destroying
the most boasted efforts of human industry. About
the year 1730 the most flourishing republic in
Europe was made to tremble at the name of this
seemingly insignificant creature ; the Dykes of
Holland during that year exhibiting such marks
of decay in many parts, where they had been
attacked by these animals, originally introduced
by ships from the East Indies, that great appre-
hejasions were entertained of the Dykes giving way,
and exposing the country to the ravages of the
ocean.
The last Linnaean genus of the Univalves, the
Sabelltt, is improperly placed among the shelly
tribe; since the tubular structure, by Linnaeus
called the shell, is merely composed of aggluti-
nated grains of sand, lined by a connecting mem-
brane. The inhabiting animal is allied to the
genus Nereis among the naked Mollusca.
Proceeding to the Bivalve Shells, we shall ob-
serve that the chief instances in which the inhabit-
ing animal differs in character from the rest, are
those of the genera entitled Anomia and Pinna.
Of these the genus Anomia is inhabited by an ani-
mal whose nature is not yet fully ascertained; and
iro LECTURE Xf.
the genus Pinna by an animal allied to the Snail
and Slug ; whereas in the rest of the Bivalves, the
inhabitant is more or less allied in shape to an
Oyster or a Muscle.
Of the Linnaean genera of Bivalve Shells, one
of the most important is that of Mytilus, since it
contains the valuable species called the Mother-of-
pearl Shell; which is the Mytilus Margaritiferus
of Linnseus. This shell, which grows to a very con-
siderable size, is of a flattened and rounded shape,
with the back or hinge-part strait. Its colour on
the outside is brown, variously spotted and clouded
according to circumstances, and on the inside, as
every one knows, of the most brilliant, iridescent,
silvery lustre. It is a shell of very considerable
thickness, and when properly cut and polished is
the beautiful substance usually known by the
name of Mother of pearl, and of which so many
ornamental articles are formed; and from the car-
tilaginous or tendinous hinge at the back-part of
the shell, in a petrified state, is produced that very
rare and beautiful extraneous fossil called the
Androdamas, (the Helmintholithus Androdamas of
Linnaeus,) which when cut and polished, in the
disposition of its fibres, and in its colours, bears
MAK GARIT.IFEIRr S
or fccu^t
1 few
•Ffcct A'trccf.
LECTURE XL in
some resemblance to the eye of a peacock's feather.
But the far more valuable products of this shell
are Pearls themselves, which are found sometimes
loose, and sometimes adhering to the shell, as well
as in the body of the animal.
The pearl muscle, or Mytilus margaritiferus, is
most common about the shores of the East-Indian
islands, and particularly of Ceylon, where the
chief pearl-fisheries have long been established, and
of which an interesting description may be found
in the Asiatic Researches and other publications.
According to the tenor of these accounts, one of
the chief pearl-fisheries of Ceylon is carried on, at
different periods, in a semilunar bay called the
bay of Condatchy, surrounded by a waste, sandy
district : during the fishing-season this bay is said
to offer a scene equally novel and astonishing;
being frequented by a heterogeneous mixture of
thousands of people of different nations, casts, and
colours, residing in tents and huts erected on the
surrounding shores: you here meet with brokers,
jewellers, and merchants of all descriptions, as well
as dealers in all kinds of provision; but by far the
greater number are engaged in the pearl-business
itself; in drilling, sorting, and otherwise preparing
172 LECTURE XL
them for sale. The drawbacks against this
scene of entertaining confusion are, the offen-
sive atmosphere occasioned by the putrefac-
tion of the innumerable pearl-muscles lying in
heaps on the shores 5 the badness of the water
round the spot, which is so brackish as scarcely to
be drinkable ; the extreme heat of the weather
during the day, and the coldness and heavy dews
of the night. The pearl-fishery therefore of Ceylon
is extremely injurious to the health of those who
engage in it, and frequent it. The Ceylonese
pearl-divers are said to make use of no particular
precautions in exercising their occupation, but
descend to the bottom at the depth of from five to
ten fathoms by means of a large stone, fastened to
them with a rope, and being furnished with a bas-
ket, they collect, with as much expedition as pos-
sible, such shells as happen to lie about the spot
of their descent, continuing their search about
two minutes, when, according to a signal which
they make to the boat to which their cord is
attached, they again ascend with their treasure.
It is added that each Diver will, in general, bring up
as many as one hundred pearl-shells of various sizes
in fas net$ and that, from long habit, some of these
LECTURE XI. 113
Indian divers become so expert as to be able to
continue under water for the space of six or seven
minutes.
This reminds us of the famous Sicilian diver
mentioned by Kircher and others, who could re-
main so long under water, that he obtained the
popular title of Fish. Frederic, King of Sicily,
unthinkingly tempted him by the oifer of a golden
cup thrown into the sea, to dive near the gulph of
Charybdis : he made two attempts, and each time
astonished the spectators by the time he remain-
ed under water; but in the third attempt he was,
as is supposed, caught in the eddy of the whirl-
pool, and never again appeared. An ingenious
French naturalist, whom I before have had occa-
sion to mention, is of opinion that he was caught
by a Colossal Cuttle-Fish! !! The accounts how-
ever of the Sicilian writers are against this suppo-
sition, since they affirm that his body was thrown
up on the coast, at above thirty miles distance
from the spot where he descended. With respect
to the animal inhabiting the pearl-shell, it is (we
know) popularly called the pearl-oyster; but iu
reality belongs to the Linnaean genus Mytylus.
LECTURE XL
It is furnished with a lengthened tubular tongue
or soft trunk, by the assistance of which it depo-
sits a small drop of a glutinous fluid on whatever
place or substance it wishes to attach itself to, and
then, suddenly withdrawing the trunk, forms, in
consequence, a thread or ligament ; and repeating
this operation a great many times, fastens it-
self by a short silken tuft. In the soft or pulpy
part of the body of the animal are found the
pearls ; the real nature and production of which,
as to the oeconomy of the animal, is perhaps still
in a great degree unknown. The idea of Reau-
mur is not improbable : viz. that the pearls are
formed like the concretions called bezoars in qua-
drupeds and some other animals. It is said that
between one and two hundred pearls have been
sometimes found within a single pearl-muscle.
Though the general colour of the shell and the
pearl is silvery, yet some have been found of a
deep red, and others of a pink colour. It is far-
ther observable, that a pearl, when cut through,
frequently exhibits some extraneous body, as a
grain of gravel or other substance in the centre*
round which the several lamellae or concentric con-
LECTURE XI.
cretions have been formed *. Besides those found
-in the body of the animal, several are often observ-
ed rising from the internal surface of the shell, to
which they are closely attached, so as not to be
completely round, and are therefore considered as
of little value. The largest Pearl-Shells, and such
as are most encrusted with extraneous marine sub-
stances, as Serpula?, Corals, &c. are in general ob-
served to be most productive of pearls ; while the
smaller and smoother shells afford but few, or so
small as to be of no importance in commerce.
In addition to what has been said relative to
Pearls, we may add, that irregular or grape-shaped
pearls sometimes occur, which seem to be owing
to a coalescence of several smaller ones into one
mass. One of the noblest pearls on record is that
which Cleopatra is absurdly said to have dissolved
in vinegar, during an entertainment which she
gave to Mark Antony, and afterwards to have
drank it. We must surely suppose that she
caused it to be well bruised first, before she put it
into the vinegar. It was a pearl belonging to a
* According to Cuvier pearls may be considered as formed by
an extravasation of the calcarious matter with which the animal
AS furnished, for the augmentation of its shell.
176 LECTURE XI.
pair of her ear-rings : the fellow to it is said to
have been sent to Rome, and after being properly
cut in two, formed a pair of pendants for the ears
of a celebrated statue of Venus in that city. It
may not be improper to observe, that the ele-
gant manufacture of what are called false or arti-
ficial pearls, which sometimes so nearly equal true
ones in beauty as to be very difficultly distin-
guished from them, is originally a French inven-
tion, and is still carried on in its greatest perfec-
tion at Paris. The thin glass bubbles used for
i
this purpose have their inside lined by a pearl-
coloured substance thrown into them through a
small tube ; the pearl-coloured substance is pre-
pared by well beating the silvery scales of fishes,
and particularly of bleaks, in water, which being
poured away, the silvery sediment undergoes seve-
ral other ablutions, and being then mixed with pro-
per agglutinating ingredients, is used in the manner
just described. The inventor is said to have been
a Bead-maker of the name of Jacquin, and to have
lived about the time of Henry the Fourth. This
man observed, that on washing the scales of the
Bleak, a most beautiful silver-coloured powder was
obtained ; and it occurred to him that by intro-
LECTURE XI.
ducing this substance into the inside of finely-
blown glass beads, slightly tinged with opaline
hues, a perfect imitation of real pearls might be
made: (for an attempt of a similar nature had
some years before been made in Italy, by filling
glass bubbles with quicksilver; but which was" im-
mediately discouraged; first, on account of the
pearls so prepared wanting the true colour, and
because they were judged to be dangerous by the
physicians. ) Jacquin was at first put to great dif-
ficulty in preserving the silver-coloured powder,
which, if not used quickly, becomes putrid, and dif-
fuses an intolerable smell. Attempts were made
to preserve it in spirits, but by this method the
lustre was entirely destroyed. It was at length
found, that volatile alkali possessed the power of
preserving the substance without injury to its co-
lour. Many years elapsed before the false pearls
became very common; and even so late as the
reign of Louis the Fourteenth it is said that a
French Marquis who possessed very little property,
but who was violently in love with a particular
lady, gained her affections by presenting her with a
rich string of these pearls, which cost him but three
.Louis's, but which the Lady, supposing them to
LECT. II, N
178 LECTURE Xt.
be real ones, valued at a very high sum. Tne
servant, who put the Marquis upon this stra-
tagem, had previously assured his master that
these pearls withstood heat and moisture ; that
they were not easily scratched, and that their
weight was the same with that of real pearls.
This anecdote, which is detailed by Professor Beck-
man, proves that artificial pearls did not become
common, even in France, till many years after
their first invention.
The trade of artificial pearl-making is still car-
ried on at Paris by the descendants of Jacquin the
original inventor, but they are also made in many
other parts of Europe, and with several variations
as to the colour and kind of the glass, and other
minute particulars.
The Mytilus margaritiferus of Linnaeus, or
great Pearl Muscle, is not the only shell which
produces pearls. A species of the genus call-
ed Myar and which is the My a mar gar it if era of
Linnaeus, also produces pearls, though, in ge-
neral, of a far smaller size, and of inferior qua-
lity. This shell is commonly called the European
pearl Muscle, and much resembles the common
j-iver muscle, though of a different genus. It is
LECTURE XI. 179
found in rivers in the north of England, in Scot-
land, Ireland, and many other parts of Europe.
In the seventeenth century several rich pearls of
large size are said to have been obtained from this
shell in some of the rivers of Ireland. One was
valued at upwards of £.4, another at £. 10, and a
third at no less than £.40. As a species, the Eu-
ropean pearl-muscle, or more properly My a, is
distinguished by having a thick, coarse, blackish
shell, generally barked or decorticated towards the
hinge *.
I have before mentioned, when speaking of
the real or Indian Pearl-Shell, the French art of
making artificial pearls. There exists also an art,
said to be often practised by the Chinese, and which
Linnaeus attempted to put in practice in Europe,
of forcing, as it were, the production of pearls, in
the Mya mar gar it if era or European pearl Muscle,
by piercing the outside of the shell in several
places, so as barely not 'to make complete perfo-
* Pearly concretions are also occasionally formed in all shells,
and are of different colours according to that of the shell in which
they are formed. Thus, the animal of the large univalve shell
called the Strombus gigas or great rose-mouthed Strombus some-
times produces pearly concretions of a fine rose-colour.
180 LECTURE Xf.
rations. In this case, the animal, conscious of the
weakness or deficiency of the shell in those spots,
soon begins to secure the weakened parts by de-
positing over them a great quantity of its pearly
catcarious matter, and thus forms so many pearly
tubercles over them. The practice however is, I
believe, considered as not of importance sufficient
to make it an object of gain, but rather of mere cu-
riosity; the pearly tubercles thus obtained be-
ing of inferior beauty to those more naturally
produced.
The Linnaean genera of Bivalve Shells are
somewhat less numerous than the Univalves, and
.are principally constituted from the different struc-
ture of the teeth or prominences belonging to the
hinge of the Shells. Among the most remarkable
genera are those of Spondylus and Chama ; in the
former of these, the chief species, which resemble
Oysters in shape, are of rich colours, and beset
with numerous and differently shaped spines and
processes, giving the whole shell a singularly cu-
rious aspect. In the genus Chama, many species
of which greatly resemble those of Spondylus, we
liave an example of by far the largest and heaviest
of the whole testaceous tribe ; the Chama Gigas
Subauriculafal Spondrlus-
/./(t
C//tf/na ^i
Cfftmp
LECTURE XI. 181
or Great Clamp Shell, as it is called, sometimes
measuring more than three feet in length, and
weighing upwards of five hundred pounds. The
inhabiting animal very much resembles an oyster
in appearance, and is said to furnish food sufficient
for one hundred persons. Specimens of this gh-
gantic shell in its full grown state are not very
common in collections, on account of their incon-
venient size ; those being preferred which are in
their small or young state ; but in very large
collections, as in the British and Leverian Mu-
seums, they may be seen to great advantage ; par-
ticularly in the latter, where there is a single
valve of this shell weighing, I believe, at least
three hundred pounds.
The concluding genus of the Linnaean Bivalve
Shells is the Pinna, the animal of which is consi-
dered by Linnaeus as allied to a Limax or Slug,
and consequently to the Snail tribe also. Some of
the species and varieties of Pinna are very large
shells, of a thin structure in proportion to their
size : and they are generally affixed to rocks or
other objects by a large tuft of very fine but
strong silken fibres or threads, which the animal
has the power of forming, by thrusting out a kind
182 LECTURE XL
of pointed trunk, with which it touches the object
it wishes to adhere to, and by retracting it, forms
a glutinous thread; and, by the repetition of
this motion, forms the whole tuft by which it is
fastened.
The large sea Pinna or Pinna rudis is a cu-
rious instance of this. This shell is brown exter-
nally, with a slightly iridescent silvery cast with-
in ; of a lengthened shape, with a very narrow
base, and dilated and rounded towards the extre-
mity. It is a frequent inhabitant of the Euro-
pean coasts, and in some places, as about the
coasts of Sicily and Italy, the silken tufts are often
collected, and spun into various articles of dress,
as gloves in particular ; the silk requiring no dye,
but retaining its native colour, which is an ele-
gant, glossy, yellowish brown. Specimens of this
kind of silk are generally to be seen in most of our
Museums. Neither is this faculty of fastening or
anchoring by means of silken fibres confined to
the genus Pinna, but takes place, as we have al-
ready seen, in the genus Mytilus, and probably in
some of the rest.
I now proceed to the Multivalve Shells, so
named, as consisting of several valves or pieces.
or
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LECTURE XL IBS
The Multivalves are distributed by Linnaeus into
three genera, one of which, named P kolas, has the
general appearance of a bivalve; but on close in-
spection, will be found to differ; having small or
accessorial valves or pieces at the back part of the
shell. The inhabiting animal resembles an Asci-
dia. The most common species of Pholas is the
P holas Dactylus of Linnaeus, a native of the Euro-
pean seas : this species has the faculty of piercing
and imbedding itself in calcarious rocks, in which
it is generally found : the animal is considered as
an edible shell-fish, and in some places is regarded
as a delicacy.
The next genus is of a very singular appear-
ance, and is called Chiton. It is of an oval shape,
and is composed of several transverse pieces; those
at each extremity having a rounded outline. The
inhabiting animal is shaped like a Doris or Sea-
SnaiL The species of Chiton are pretty numer-
ous, and there is a considerable degree of general
similarity between them. One of the largest is the
Chiton squamosus, measuring about three inches in
length, and of a greenish white colour. It is a
native of the American seas ; but several of this
genus are found also about the European coasts,
184 LECTURE XL
The remaining genus of Multwalve shells is of
a more singular nature than any of the rest : it is
called Lepas or Barnacle : the shell consists of se-
veral unequal valves or pieces, and is affixed at the
base, in some species, to a long, wrinkled, leather-
like tube ; and in others immediately to the sub-
stance to which it is attached, without the inter-
vention of the leathery tube. The inhabiting animal
is of a very singular structure, and is a kind of 7V/-
ton, perfectly resembling the Linnaean genus Tri-
ton among the naked Mollusca : the body is oval,
of a soft consistence, furnished with a long tubular
trunk, surrounded by several pair of long, curved,
jointed arms or tentacula, which taken all together
have a kind of feather-shaped aspect.
Among those species of Lepas in which the
shell is seated on a tubular process, one of the most
common is the Lepas ana t if em, or Barnacle Shell.
It is frequently found adhering to the bottoms of
ships, to rocks, and other marine substances, whe-
ther fixed or floating, and is sometimes seen single,
and sometimes in groupes : the leathery tube is
from one to two inches in length, and the shell it-
self somewhat more than an inch long : its colour
is white, slightly clouded with blueish brown, and
A^ATITFEJRA
ShcU. att/tefaise efi
some ctficr species of tfie Jtvnc gcruts
i£ve ^c-f'i^Zi ftt/t-ti ftMi/Jn ,/ 6, C
LECTURE XL 185
often with a cast of flesh-colour ; and is composed
of about five valves; the two on each side being
largest, and the fifth or back valve being slender
or narrow. From the front of the shell hang out
the curved tentacula, of a somewhat dusky colour,
and resembling the shape of a plume of feathers.
Among the numerous errors with which Natural
History was formerly encumbered, there prevailed
an idea that the Bird called the Barnacle goose
was not produced like other birds, from an egg,
but that it derived its origin from this shell. This
error, gross and absurd as it wras, seems to have
met with credit from authors who should have
viewed objects of this nature with other eyes than
those of the vulgar. It was supposed by these phi-
losophers that the inhabitant of this shell was an
immature bird, or young of the above-mentioned
goose, which, after having attained its plumage, li-
berated itself from the confinement of its shell, and
dropped into the water. The numerous tentacula
or arms of the inhabiting animal, which are disposed
in a semicircular form, and, as before observed,
have a feathery appearance, seem to have been
all that could reasonably be alleged in favour of
this strange supposition. Among others who have
186 LECTURE XI.
mentioned this goose-bearing shell is Gerard, the
author of the well-known Herbal. His account
runs as follows. " But what our eyes have seen,
and hands have touched, we shall declare. There
is a small island in Lancashire called the pile of
Fowlders, wherein are found the broken pieces of
old and bruised ships, some whereof have been
cast thither by shipwracke, and also of the trunks
and bodies, with the branches of old rotten trees
cast there likewise ; whereon is found a certain
spume or froth that in time breedeth unto certaine
shells in shape like those of a muskle, but sharper
pointed, and of a whitish colour ; wherein is con-
tained a thing in form like a lace of silk, finely
woven, as it were, together, of a whitish colour, one
end whereof is fastened unto the inside of the shell,
even as the fish of oysters and muscles are : the
other end is made faste unto the belly of a rude
masse or lumpe, which in time commeth unto the
shape and forme of a bird. When it is perfectly
formed, the shell gapeth open, and the first thing
that appeareth is the foresaid lace or string : next
come the legs of the bird hanging out, and as it
groweth greater, it openeth the shell by degrees,
iill at length it is all come forth, and hangeth only
LECTURE XL 1ST
by the bill ; in a short time after, it commeth to
full maturitie, and falleth into the sea, where it
gathereth feathers, and groweth to fovvle bigger
than a mallard, and less than a goose, having
black legges and bill or beake, and feathers black
and white, spotted in such a manner as is our
Magpie, called in some places a Pie-Annat, which
the people of Lancashire call by no other name
than a tree-goose; which place and all those parts
adjoining do so much abound with, that one of the
best is to be bought for threepence. For the truth
hereof if any do doubt, may it please them to re-
paire unto me, and I will satisfy them by the tes-
timony of good witnesses."
The species of Lepas furnished with the coria-
ceous tube are pretty numerous, several new ones
having been of late years discovered : these ani-
mals sometimes attach themselves to animated as
well as to inanimate bodies, and are frequently
seen on turtles and other marine animals. In the
Museum of the late Mr. Hunter is an instance of
a species of Sea-Snake, the Anguis platura of Lin-
nseus (Hydrus bicolor) of more modern naturalists,
which has a groupe of small Lepades affixed to one
side of its tail,
188 LECTUHE XI.
Among the species of Lepas without the co-
riaceous tube or stem, or such as are immediately
affixed by the base of the shell, one of the most
common is the Lepas Balanus of Linnaeus, or com-
mon Acorn-Shell; frequently seen about almost
all the European coasts, on rocks, &c. and a
smaller species, extremely resembling it, is often
seen grouped on the backs of Oyster-shells. The
animals of the whale tribe are often infested by
various kinds of Lepades, some of which are merely
affixed to the surface, while others are deeply im-
bedded, to the distance of (some inches beneath the
cuticle.
Having thus given a general description of the
testaceous tribe, we have to observe, that the shell-
animals are produced from eggs, which in some
species are gelatinous, and in others covered with
a calcarious shell; and that the young animal
emerges from the egg with its shell on its back : the
most familiar and convincing proof of this may
be obtained by observing the evolution or hatch-
ing of the eggs of the common Garden Snail, as
well as of several of the water-snails, which depo-
sit eggs so transparent that the motions of the
young, with the shell on its back, may be very dis-
LECTURE XI. 189
tinctly seen several days before the period of
hatching. All the shell-animals are of such a con-
stitution as perpetually to secrete or exsude from
their bodies a viscid moisture, and it is with this,
managed according to the exigences of the ani-
mal, that the shell is throughout life increased
in dimensions, and repaired when accidentally
broken in any particular part. The growth of shells
proceeds from the edges of the mouth or opening,
and thus the spires or turns of the Univalve shells
are gradually increased in number and size, till
the animal has arrived at the full limits of its
growth. The Bivalves are increased in a similar
manner, by the gradual enlargement of the out-
line of each valve.
LECTURE XII.
JL HERE exists a large tribe of animals to which
we have as yet paid no attention. These animals
are, in common language, termed Worms, and
constitute a particular division of the Order Vermes
in the Linnsean arrangement. Their forms are
various, and their natures extraordinary. The
major part of them are the inhabitants of living
animal bodies; their introduction into which is
one of those inscrutable mysteries which perhaps
must for ever evade the power of human intellect,
It is sufficient, at present* to say, that they exist
in most animals ; some kinds in the intestines, and
some in other viscera. I do not mean however to
pursue their history any further than is merely ne-
cessary, in order to elucidate the various divisions
of the Animal World.
192 LECTURE XII.
Of the whole tribe of Vermes none is more cu-
rious than the genus called Tcenia, which is ex-
tremely numerous, and presents a great diversity
of appearance in the different species ; some be-
ing of a globular form, with a small neck and
head, while others are of immoderate length, with
the body divided into very numerous joints ; in
some species very close set ; in others more dis-
tant. The head in all the Tamiae, or Tape- Worms,
as they are commonly called, is of a highly curious
structure ; being of a rounded and slightly flat-
tened shape, with a small orifice in the middle,
and four much larger ones placed round the mar-
gin, while the whole circumference of the head is
beset with a double, and, in some species, with a
single row of sharp, reversed, crooked spines, by
the assistance of which the animal is enabled to
adhere tenaciously to the part in which it resides.
It is surprising that Linnaeus should have main-
tained that these animals had no distinct or pro-
per head, and that Tyson and others, who had
described them with one, were mistaken. A clear
general idea of the genus Taenia may be obtained
by inspecting a few plates of some of the principal
species.
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i
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Different Tie»vo
MI tfo natural st?i'
LECTURE XII. 193
The lately instituted genus Filaria is so simi-
lar to that of Gordius or Hair- Worm, that it can
hardly be separted from it with propriety. Some
species of Filaria inhabit the waters, and some are
found in the bodies of animals ; even in those of
insects ; many kinds of Beetles and Caterpillars
being infested by them. Among those which in-
fest the waters, the most common is the Horse-
Hair Worm, so called from its general appearance,
usually measuring several inches in length, and
being of a dusky colour, and not much thicker
than a horse-hair. It is the Gordius aquaticus of
Linnaeus, and is in many places believed by the
common people to be an animated horse-hair. Lin-
naeus observes that in Sweden an idea prevails of its
bite, or rather its puncture, producing the com-
plaint called a Whitlow; and this he says was verified
in the case of a Mr. Rinmann. I have likewise my-
self been witness to an instance of a similar nature,
in which the animal, on being taken out of the wa-
ter, pierced the tip of the finger, near the nail, and
a whitlow was the consequence of the puncture; but
whether the same complaint might not have taken
place from the puncture of any other substance on
the same part, I cannot take upon me to determine.
LECT. II. O
19* LECTURE Xlt.
Among the most extraordinary of the Lin-
nsean Vermes is that which he calls Furia. There
is only one species, which is called Furia inf ema-
ils, m the Infernal Fury; and not without good
reason, if we may rely on the accounts which have
been given of the torments it sometimes inflicts on-
the person it happens to attack. Its character is, a<
thin, thread-shaped body, edged along each side
with a row of sharp, reversed prickles, lying close
to the edge of the body, OF at very acute angles.
It bears a resemblance therefore to a minute Sco-
lopendra or Centipede, and from the structure of
its body, is enabled to perforate the skin in an in-
stant, so as not to be extracted without extreme
difficulty. It is pretended that this worm, in the
marshy parts of Sweden,* and some other coun-
tries, is conveyed by some means or other through
the air, and drops on the bodies of cattle and men;
producing almost immediately a pain so insup-
portable as sometimes to prove fatal in the space
of a quarter of an hour. Linnasus tells us that he
himself once experienced the effects of this ani-
mal, near the city of Lund in Sweden. Dr. So-
lander once gave a slight description of this worm;
but, from the difficulty of obtaining recent speci-
LECTURE xn.
'mens, its nature is still obscure ; and even its very
'existence has been occasionally doubted ; particu-
larly by Blumenbach and Muller. There seems
however to be no good reason for questioning the
existence of some such animal, though the ac-
counts of its extraordinary qualities may have been
exaggerated. The best account of it is in a quarto
pamphlet, published by a Dr. Hagen, as an aca-
demical thesis : in which all the observations rela-
tive to it are summed up in a concise manner, and
its real existence, seemingly, well ascertained. It
is said to be generally about three quarters of an
inch long, and in habit or shape to resemble a
Scolopendra, as I before observed.
I shall now pass to a branch of Zoology distin-
guished by peculiarities of organization and ap-
pearance unequalled by any other parts of the
animal kingdom.
These wonderful productions are now, by the
common consent of Naturalists, distinguished, in
systematic arrangement, by the title of Zoophytes
or Plant- Animals. Of these the genus Hydra or
Polype deserves our first attention ; not only from
its wonderful nature and properties, but because it
serves as a kind of standard or example of refer-
196 LECTURE XII.
ence in many other genera of zoophytes more or
less allied to it.
The genus Hydra or Polype, comprehending
the real or fresh- water polypes, was so named by
Linnaeus because in reality it affords phenomena
similar to those recorded of the fabulous Hydra of
antiquity, which, when one head was cut off, pro-
duced others in its place. The character of the
Hydra or Polype is a long, tubular body, possessing
a great power of contraction and extension -9 affix-
ing itself by the tail ; and furnished at its upper
or open end with a certain number of long arms
or tentacula, differing in number in the different
species. The principal species- are the brown, the
yellowish-grey, and the green Polypes, or the Hy-
dra fusca, grisea, and viridis of Linnseus. These
curious animals may be found in small streams
and in stagnant waters, adhering to the stems of
aquatic plants, or to the under surfaces of the
leaves, and other objects. They prey on small
worms, Monoculi, and many other animals which
happen to occur in the same waters. If a Polype
be cut in two, the superior part will produce a
new tail, and the inferior part will produce a new
head and arms ; and this, in warm weather, in the
f
oft/i
ie
or
both in t£? natural size
jtoS Oc&
- .We,-/ Stnvf.
LECTURE m 197
course of a very few days. If cut into three
pieces, the middle portion will produce both the
head and tail ; and in short, Polypes may be cut
in all directions, and will still reproduce the defi-
cient organs. The natural mode of propagation
in this animal, is by shoots or offsets, in the man-
ner of a plant; one or more branches or shoots
proceeding from the parent stem, and dropping off
when complete; and it frequently happens that
these young branches will produce other branches
before they themselves drop off from the parent,
so that a polype may be found with several of its
descendants still adhering to the original stock or
stem ; thus constituting a real genealogical tree :
but the Polype also, during the autumnal season,
deposits eggs, which evolve themselves afterwards
into distinct animals, and thus it possesses two
modes of multiplication. It appears a paradoxical
circumstance that a Polype should be able to
swallow a worm three or four times as large as
itself, which is frequently observed to be the case ;
but it must be considered that the body of the ani-
mal is extremely extensile ; and that it possesses
the power of stretching according to the size of the
substance which it swallows. It seizes its prey
198 LECTURE XII.
with great eagerness, but swallows it slowly, in the
same manner as a snake swallows any small qua-
druped. The arms of a Polype, when microsco-
pically examined, are found to bear a general re-
semblance to those of the Sepiae or Cuttle-Fishes,
being furnished with a vast number of smalt or-
gans, which seem to act as so many suckers or ace-
tabula, by which means the animal can hold a
worm, even though but slightly in contact with
one of its arms ; but when on the point of swal-
lowing its prey, it then makes use of all the arms
at once, in order the more readily to absorb it.
The number of Zoophytes is extremely great,
and the major part are of an appearance so much
resembling vegetables, that they have been gene-
rally considered as such j though the horny and
stony appearance of several of the tribe, at first
view declare them to be of a widely different na-
ture from the generality of plants. In others
however the softness of their substance, and their
ramified manner of growth, would immediately
lead any one unacquainted with their real nature
to suppose them vegetables. The hard, horny, or
stony Zoophytes are in general known by the
name of Corals 3 and of these there are several ge-
LECTURE XII. 199
uera or kinds, instituted from the structure and
appearance of the Coral or hard part, and the af-
finity which the animal or softer part bears to some
other genus among the soft-bodied Animals or
Mollusca. The Zoophytes therefore unite the
-animal and vegetable kingdoms, and fill up the
intermediate space.
By the ancients most of the Zoophytes were
considered as plants ; but in later times some phi-
losophers have imagined them rather to belong to
the mineral kingdom, fancying that they grew or
increased somewhat in the manner of crystals and
other regularly figured bodies.
About the beginning of the eighteenth cen-
tury some observations were made on the com-
mon red coral, and some other species, by Count
Marsigli, which seemed to prove them of a vege-
table nature ; for on gathering them perfectly
fresh, and placing them in sea water, they appear-
ed to put forth small flowers from all the minute
cavities or hollow points on the surface. These
therefore were considered as a convincing proof
that coral was a plant. The arguments against
this theory were, the animal odor which they dif-
fused in burning, and a greater degree of sensibi-
200 LECTURE XII.
lity in the supposed flowers than seemed quite con-
sistent with the generality of plants.
A very few years after Count Marsigli's dis-
covery and description of the supposed flowers of
Coral, Dr. Peysonel, a French physician, from ob-
servations made on some parts of the European
coasts, as well as on those of the West Indies, ven-
tured to propose to the French Academy a new
theory relative to the nature of Corals ; in which
he maintained that the supposed flowers were real
animals, allied to Actiniae, and that, in conse-
quence, the corals should be considered as aggre-
gates of animals, either forming, or at least inha-
biting the calcarious substance of the coral in
which they appeared.
To this theory no great attention was paid;
and several years elapsed before a farther advance
\vas made in the knowledge of these bodies : but
at length, about the year 1730, a Mr. Trembly of
Geneva, in searching after some small aquatic
plants, happened to discover the animals now call-
ed Polypes : these had indeed been discovered long
before by Leewenhoeck, in Holland ; but he only
gave a general description of the animal, and ob-
served that it multiplied by an apparent vegeta-
LECTURE XII. 201
tion, but was ignorant of its power of reproduction
after cutting : but Mr. Trembly, surprised at the
singular appearance of a creature which had at
once the aspect of a plant, and the motions of an
animal, determined to try the experiment of cut-
ting it, in order to ascertain its doubtful nature ;
and was beyond measure astonished to find that
instead of destroying it, both parts seemed unin-
jured by the wound, and that in a very few days
each had reproduced every limb that had been lost,
and eat, and moved as before. This discovery be-
ing announced, was at first considered by many
as a fable ; and it was even contended that this
division of animal life was in itself absolutely im-
possible upon the principles of common sense as
well as of sound philosophy : but at length, the
attention of all Europe being excited by the singu-
larity of the circumstance, the animals were every
where sought after, and experiments made by cut-
ting them in every possible direction, and their
real nature thus completely ascertained ; and from
subsequent observations it was found that the ani-
mals of most of the Coral tribe, both hard and soft,
were strongly allied to Polypes, and were endow-
ed with the same reproductive properties, while
202 LECTURE XII.
others were possessed of the same power, but
seemed more allied to the Actiniae or Sea-Anemo-
nies, and to the Medusas or Sea-Blubbers. After-
wards the celebrated Mr. Ellis, by repeated obser-
vations made about the British coasts, proved be-
yond all doubt, that the smaller corals, commonly
known by the name of Corallines or Sea-Mosses,
were actually so many ramified Sea-Polypes, co-
vered with a kind of strong, horny case, to defend
them from the injuries to which they would other-
wise be liable in the boisterous element in which
they are destined to reside,
Mr. Ellis's observations on the harder or stony
Corals, as well as the observations of many other
philosophers, have at length proved also that these
stony corals are equally of an animal nature ; the
whole coral continuing to grow as an animal, and
to form by secretion the strong or stony part of
the coral, which at once may be considered as
its bone and its habitation, which it has no power
of leaving, and a coral of this kind is therefore a
large compound zoophyte-
I shall mention a few species both of the small-
er and larger corals as illustrations of what has
been said relative to their growth and structure,
/53
GXeanffa' Meet Street
LECTURE XII, 203
t
and shall begin with a genus of the smaller corals
called Sertularia. The genus Sertularia is re-
markable for its vegetable appearance, and is po-
pularly considered as a kind of sea-moss. It is a
genus which contains a vast number of species,
some natives of our own coasts, and others exotic.
Most of the species are, when dried, of a pale, se-
mitransparent, yellowish-brown colour, and di-
vided into very numerous ramifications. In the liv-
ing or fresh state, the animal or Polype part may
be observed to fill the whole, both of the stem and
branches, and to send forth ahead, with several
arms, from every individual termination of the
numerous branches. The whole therefore may be
considered as a very compound or branched po-
lype, defended by an elastic, horny covering. In
the dried zoophyte the animal part shrinks up
and becomes obliterated ; the cortical part or case
alone remaining. One of the most elegant spe-
cies of Sertularia, and at the same time one of the
most simple in its structure, is the S. pinnata or
pinnated Sertularia, which is a native of our own
coasts, and is found adhering to rocks, and often
to oysters and other shell-fish : it seldom exceeds
the height of about two inches ; and its appear-
204 LECTURE XII.
ance, when slightly magnified, is represented in
the figures we are at present viewing, and in which
the whole structure of the Zoophyte is clearly
shown. Like others of its genus, it produces eggs,
at particular periods, which are situated in the bo-
soms of the branches, and which produce young
Zoophytes like the parent.
The Genus Tubularia is of uncommon ele-
gance. It is of a softer nature than most other
Zoophytes, except the Hydrae or proper Polypes ;
and some of the most beautiful species are na-
tives of fresh waters, adhering to the stems of wa-
ter-plants and other objects. The generic charac-
ter of Tubularia is, a Zoophyte of a tubular struc-
ture, either simple or branched ; fixed by its base ;
and protruding from the top of each tube a head,
surrounded by numerous tentacula or arms, which
are commonly placed in the form of a crescent or
semicircle. It is hardly possible by any descrip-
tion to give an adequate idea of the beauty and
elegance of some of the Tubularia. One of the
largest species is a marine one, and is found on
many of the European coasts, on rocks and shells,
and consists of straitish or upright yellowish tubes,
of the thickness of a small straw, and about three
TlIBTQJLATRIA JIEPTA9 «
i/i ifo mifit/w/
J&fagnxfied, TTeir cft/ic
TTOBUTLA1R.IA-
LECTURE XII. 205
inches tall; and from the top of each proceeds a
crimson head, of the form before mentioned, and
about three quarters of an inch in diameter. But
the most beautiful are two species, by no means
very uncommon in clear stagnant waters, where
they adhere to various substances. The whole
Zoophyte appears, at first view, like a smull, trans-
parent bladder, sometimes slightly, and sometimes
very much branched, so as to extend to the dis-
tance of about two inches : and from the top of
each of the divisions of the vesicular part proceed
five or six, or sometimes ten heads, of the most
beautiful transparent white, and of about the
eighth of an inch or more in diameter ; each head
being surrounded by sixty arms or tentacula, dis-
posed in the form of a crescent, and generally in a
state of rapid circular motion. These beautiful
Zoophytes may be kept for many months in
glasses of water, and exhibit a most elegant spec-
tacle, especially when slightly magnified. These
two fresh-water species vary a little in form, and
are often confounded with each other. The one is
the Tubularia reptans, and the other the Tubula-
ria campanulata : In English they may be term-
ed the Creeping or branching, and the Bell-shaped
206 LECTURE Xfl.
Tubularia. The marine genus called Flustfa at
first view so much resembles afucus or sea- weed,
that it has been commonly described as such be-
fore the time of Mr. Ellis5 who determined its
real nature. It consists of flat, branched, leaf-like
processes, each composed of very numerous cells,
of a slightly horny or tough substance, open at the
top, and affording a passage to the animal part or
polype-head, which, in the recent zoophyte, pro-
trudes through each cell ; and the regular manner
in which the cells are disposed, gives the leaf or
plant-like appearance to the whole. The most
common species is the Fl. foliacea, or broad-leaved
Flustra, common on our own coasts.
I shall now proceed to give an example or two
of the principal genera of the hard or strong
Zoophytes, more generally called Corals. Of these
some are furnished with a kind of horny stem or
central part, covered over throughout all the rami-
fications by a soft bark of a calcarious nature, and
in which the animal or polype-like fabric is placed,
while in other species the central part or stem is
of a stony hardness, and is covered, in a similar
manner, by a softer bark containing the anima-l
part. The most remarkable genus of the hard
FlLABEIXUM
or
iffeiG OofaZoiuton
- Fleet Stoee&
LECTURE XII. 207
Corals is called Gorgonia or Gorgon. It contains
a great many species, which differ greatly from
each other in appearance, some being of a flat-
tened and fan-shaped form; others rounded, and
branched in the manner of trees. Of the fan-
shaped gorgoniae the species called the G. Flabel-
lum Veneris, or Venus's Fan, is one of the most
elegant. It is chiefly found on the rocks of the
Indian and American seas, and grows to the
height of two or three feet ; its branches are so
disposed as to resemble a kind of irregular net-
work, and it is often seen in a proliferous state,
many younger specimens branching out from the
chief or principal one. Its colour is either purple
or yellow, and sometimes intermixed. The stem
or bone, when the soft part in which the polypes
are placed is rubbed off, is of a horny substance,
and of a blackish colour. But the species which
of all others is most esteemed on account of the .
beauty of its colour, and the durability of its sub-
stance, is the common red Coral, which is the Gor-
goniap retiosa of modern naturalists. Red Coral is
a native both of the European and Indian seas -}
adhering to rocks, and growing in an inverted po-
sition. When recent, it is covered with a soft
208 LECTURE XII.
fleshy coat or bark, of a red-lead colour, and beset
with numerous small warts, from each of which
proceeds a head of the general polype or animal
part : those heads are divided into eight parts or
arms, and, (as I had occasion before to observe),
induced Count Marsigii to suppose that they were
the flowers of the Coral. The red Coral, like most
of the other Gorgonia?, is first produced from a
small egg. The eggs of this Zoophyte being dis-
charged by the Polypes, fall on the rocks and at-
tach themselves by their glutinous moisture, and
when fixed begin to grow. Before the Coral is
excluded from the egg it is quite soft, and has no
appearance of the bony part ; but when it has
grown to the height of about the eighth of an inch,
it assumes the hardness of bone, and begins to mul-
tiply its polype-heads, and to form new branches.
I should here observe that Linnaeus somewhat im-
properly placed the Red Coral in the genus Isis,
under the name of Isis nobilis.
The genus Isis differs from that of Gorgonia in
being of a jointed fabrick, instead of being com-
posed of continued branchings. It is of a stony
hardness, but the joints are of a horny nature, or
much softer. The whole Coral is covered with a
0rJBmai
LECTURE XII. 209
soft bark, in which, as in the rest of the tribe, are
disposed the numerous branchings of the animal
part. The most elegant species of Isis is an
Indian Coral, growing to the height of about a
foot, and of a white colour with the horny joints
black. This, however, is the appearance of the
Coral when dried, as it is usually seen in cabinets;
but when recent, it is entirely covered with a soft
whitish bark with numerous pores, from each of
which protrudes a polype-head with eight arms.
Some of the Coral tribe have their animal part
more nearly approaching (so far as we can trust
to the observations hitherto made) to that of a
Medusa than to that of a Polype. Of this kind
are those very numerous Corals known by the
title of Madrepores, and which constitute the Lin-
naean genus Madrepora. Their forms are very
various, some being of a globular shape, others
flattened, and others branched in various directions.
They are generally marked with numerous star-
shaped cavities, divided into several rays, but
many are rather marked into various winding
stripes composed of separate plates or lamina; and
all, when recent, exhibit a gelatinous animal sub-
stance situated either on the star-shaped cavities
LECT. II. P
210 LECTURE XII.
or on the winding laminated part of the surface,
according to the different species. The Madre-
pores are of a stony hardness, and this stony or
calcarious substance is perpetually secreted or de-
posited from the gelatinous animal part. The
genus Madrepora is not only very numerous but
very intricate ; many of the species being difficult
to describe, and their synonyms being often
confounded by different authors. The very large
globular Madrepores, covered with a winding or
running pattern in the manner of a labyrinth, are
commonly called Brainstones, and are often seen
of such a size as to measure nearly two feet in di-
ameter : others of similar shape are covered over
with numerous star-shaped spots or impressions.
Of the branched Madrepores one of the most re-
markable is that called the Cinnamon Coral or
Cinnamon Madrepore : it is often about a foot in
height, and of a pale brown colour, and when
recent, is said to diffuse a fragrant smell. The
muricated Madrepore is distinguished by its
remarkably roughened surface, rising into innu-
merable prominences, each perforated at the tip.
This species varies, perhaps more than any other
of the Coral tribe, exhibiting all the diversities
LECTURE XII. 211
-that can be imagined as to shape, but still preserv-
ing its particularity of surface.
Some of the Madrepores bear an appearance
so perfectly similar to that of some kind of Mush-
room, that they have often been considered as pe-
trified Mushrooms. The Madrepores in general
as well as the other larger Corals, are chiefly found
about the coasts of the Indian islands, where they
are so numerous as to form vast rocks, their animals
seeming to carry on their work by a kind of instinct,
continuing to grow in such a manner as to encircle
a vast body of water, so as to form a calm or smooth
bay. Within the tropical seas, according to the
learned Dr. Reinhold Forster, in his ingenious dis-
sertation on India, there are numerous small
islands, but little elevated above the surface of the
sea. All these are the work of marine Zoophyte
Vermes, which raise on all sides their calcarious
matter, from which at length are formed rocks
and stony shallows, very dangerous to navigators.
Easterly winds being most prevalent in these seas,
the animals, as if actuated by instinct, endeavour
to exclude the waves driv;en by the winds, by
means of their stupendous works 3 and therefore,
carrying on their habitations, they extend them
212 LECTURE XII.
in long arms, which at last unite in a circle,
within which they include a portion of calm, un-
troubled sea. On the opposite or windward side,
.the waves continually throw up fragments of
corals, which, accumulating by degrees, form a
mound against the billows; and on that part
the sea is rendered gradually shallower; while,
on the other side, immediately under the arms
raised by the Zoophytes, the sea is of an astonish-
ing depth; and not unfrequently, a part of the
work remains open far the. ingress and egress of
the tide. In the coral banks themselves, sand is
collected by the waves, affording soil and ali-
ment for the seeds of shore plants brought thither
by the sea; and these plants at length perish-
ing, gradually create and accumulate a vegetable
mould. If by chance a Cosoa-Nut be carried by
the sea to these spots, it germinates, and grows
into a tall tree, bearing, and disseminating many
nuts, some of which again germinating, soon form
a palm-grove, affording shade to birds and other
animals, and supplying navigators, driven to the
place by stress of weather, with a grateful food
and liquor. The bay included within the arms of
the Zoophytes is a receptacle for those fishes
LECTURE XII. 213
which require a calm sea,, and thus another food
from the animal kingdom is presented to strangers.
The shallows also afford a quiet and desirable situ-
ation to Mollusca, and shell-fish of all kinds, and
contribute greatly towards supplying the inhabit-
ants ef the islands with a variety of food. Thus
we perceive that the Coral tribe, however insigni-
ficant it may at first appear, is one of those power-
ful engines in the hand of the Author of nature
which can produce the most stupendous effects from
the most seemingly weak and unpromising agents.
After this general survey of the Zoophyte tribe,
I shall beg leave to direct your attention to a Class
of Animals which, till the latter part of the seven-
teenth century, had escaped all human attention and
investigation, and constituted a kind of invisible
world : a series of beings, the structure, powers,
and properties of which, are perhaps more aston-
ishing than those of most other animals : yet of
such minuteness as, in general, to elude the sharp-
est sight, unless assisted by glasses. The ancients
therefore were totally unacquainted with this class
of beings. To them the Mite was made the nt
pivj ultra, or utmost bound of animal minuteness -,
but the moderns, assisted by the invention of the
214 LECTURE XIL
Microscope, have discovered whole tribes of ani-
mals, compared to which even Mites may be con-
sidered as a kind of Elephants. These minute
beings are chiefly to be observed in fluids of vari-
ous kinds ; and principally in such as have had any
animal or vegetable substances infused in them;
and for this reason they are often called in modern
Zoology by the title of Animalcula Infusoria or
Infusorial Animalcules. A most extraordinary
idea was entertained by the celebrated Count de
Buffon, relative to these Animalcules; viz. that
they were not real animals, but a kind of organic
particles or Moleculae, which were capable, under
certain circumstances, of being formed into ani-
mated beings. The experiments of Spallanzani
and others have however completely overthrown
this chimerical and absurd theory of the Count de
Buffon ; and indeed one would hardly think it pos-
sible for any person of unprejudiced mind, nay
one may even add, of common sense, to view the
several animalcules in fluids, and at the same time
to doubt of their being real animals. Their rapid
and various motions; their pursuit of the smaller
kinds on which many of the larger prey; their
avoiding each other as they swim; the curious
LECTURE XII. 215
and regular structure of their bodies; and their
whole appearance, form the most convincing
proofs of their real animal nature and life-
Animalcules, as I before observed, are most
frequently found in fluids; but this is a doctrine
that has not always been clearly understood, and
has been productive of some erroneous ideas in
natural history. Some writers, for instance, have
asserted that almost every kind of fluid abounded
with animalcules; and that wines, and spirits, ex-
hibited legions of them. This, however, is so very
far from the truth, that none are ever to be dis-
covered in inflammable spirits, or in any fermented
liquor that has not passed either into the state of
vinegar, or that is not grown completely vapid.
As almost all extraordinary discoveries are liable,
when related by unskilful persons, to have their
circumstances exaggerated by additional orna-
ments, we need not be surprized that this has
been the case relative to the History of Microsco-
pic Animalcules. No sooner did the microsco-
pical observations of Leewenhoeck and a few
others become pretty generally known, than im-
mediately, as if by a kind of fatality, the animal-
cular doctrine was carried a great deal too far;
216 LECTURE XII.
and innumerable substances were supposed to
swarm with these minute beings, which later and
more accurate observations have proved to be
totally free from them. Thus, the blueish or
bloomy appearance on the surface of several sorts
of plums, grapes, and many other fruits, has
been supposed owing to innumerable legions of
animalcules on the surface of the fruit : but this
idea is entirely erroneous. It happens, a little
unfortunately, that Mr. Pope has introduced it
into his celebrated poem the Essay on Man, which
still continues to propagate the mistake amongst
those who are not scientifically conversant in such
subjects.
" Ev'n the blue down the purple Plum surrounds,*
A living World, thy failing sight confounds."
The blueish appearance above-mentioned is a
mere vegetable efflorescence, which regularly takes
place on such kind of fruit, and consists of particles
of no determinate shape, and has not the least ap-
pearance that could lead to a supposition of its
being of an animal nature,
To attempt a methodical enumeration of Ani-
LECTURE XII. 2H
malcules appears, at first view, almost a hopeless
labour; since exclusive of the vast variety of
species, (of which, in all probability, only a small
part has yet been observed,) many of them have
a power of changing their shape at pleasure ; so
as to appear widely different at particular times
from what they did the moment before; and others,
though their form is constant, are apt to vary in
colour; by which means some deception or ob-
scurity may arise, and an uncertainty in determin-
ing the species. Much, however, has been done:
a great many species of Animalcules have been
perfectly well described, and are perfectly well
known to microscopical observers, since they
possess characters too clear and plain to admit of
any doubt of their species, whenever they happen
to appear.
As examples of this curious and interesting
race of animals I shall particularize a few of the
most remarkable kinds, and such as are well figured
in the works of Naturalists.
Among these the genus called Vorticetta is one
of the principal. Its character is, that the mouth
or opening is surrounded by numerous short
feelers, forming a kind of fringe round the head.
£18 LECTURE XII.
One of the most elegant species of Vorticelia is
the Vorticelia Convallaria, a beautiful transparent
animalcule, the body of which is formed like a bell-
f
shaped flower, and is furnished with a very long
tail or -stem, by which it affixes itself to whatever
substance it pleases. When a groupe of these
animalcules is viewed by the Microscope, it ex-
hibits the appearance of a set of animated flowers,
alternately stretching out their stems at full length,
and again suddenly contracting them in a spiral
twist as represented in the figures we are now
viewing. This species is very common, and is
generally found attached to the stems and under
surface of the leaves of the Common Lemna minor
or Duckweed.
But a still more elegant species is the Vorti-
celia racemosa. It is found during the summer
months in clear stagnant waters, attached to the
stalks of the smaller water plants and other objects;
to the naked eye the whole groupe, on account of
the great number of individuals composing it, is
distinctly visible, in the form of a small whitish
spot, resembling a kind of slime or mouldiness,
but when placed under the microscope in a drop
of water on a glass, its extraordinary structure is
( i
i& natural size ,
t At- £
250
urceolari$
very comma vi during the summer men f/ts in jfap/fwif- nwfrr.
Jti*f represented aj yery nighty mayni/ied .
jffeS 0ctl..J.0ntt4,n fut>h//i,/ //i • C./t',w :,-/•»' f'/ecfSfreef.
ForticcUa
0/S0 i/i /£
marine jpeceiej 8? allied to
4
Convallaruisi
ycrj' cammonrej water
natural - Fleet Strrft.
LECTURE XII. 219
immediately perceived. From a single stem pro-
ceed, at various distances, several smaller ramifica-
tions, each terminated by an apparent flower, like
that of a Convolvulus, and furnished on the op-
posite edges, with a pair of filaments resembling
stamina. The whole is in the highest degree
transparent, and perfectly resembles the finest
glass; while the varying motions of the seeming
flowers, expanding and contracting occasionally,
-and turning themselves in different directions,
afford a scene so singularly curious as to be num-
bered among the finest spectacles which the Mi-
croscope is capable of exhibiting. Each animal,
though seated on the common stem, is complete
in itself, and possesses the power of detaching
itself from the stem, and forming a fresh colony
from itself.
To the genus Vorticella also belongs the cele-
brated Animalcule called the Wheel- Animal, from
the appearance which the head in some particular
.positions exhibits; as if furnished with a pair of
toothed wheels, in rapid motion: this animalcule,
which is called Vorticella rotatoria,has long ago been
pretty well described and figured by Baker in his
work on the Microscope : it is of a lengthened shape,
and of a pale brown colour, and is of such a size
220 LECTURE XII.
as to be sometimes perceptible by a sharp eye,
even without a glass. It is remarkable for its
strange power of reviviscence, or restoration to
life and motion after being dried many months on
a glass. The Wheel- Animal is often found on the
scum covering the surface of stagnant waters, but
more frequently in the water found in the hollows
of decayed trees after rain.
In spring and summer nothing is more com-
mon than to see the surface of the smaller kind of
stagnant waters covered with a fine deep-green
scum; and frequently the same kind of greenness
is diffused throughout the whole body of the water:
this green colour is entirely owing to an Animalcule
of a genus called Cercaria*. I have myself de-
scribed it under the name of Cercaria mutabilis or
Changeable Cercaria, because a variety sometimes
occurs of a red colour. The animal is of a length-
ened oval shape, with a slightly lengthened tail,
the body or middle part appearing as if filled
with very numerous green spawn or ova, while
the extremities are transparent. It occurs at
this season of the year in almost every puddle.
The red variety is far less common, and the ap-
* Naturalist's Miscellany, vol. iii, pi. 107.
m
MJJTABII.IS
lit varioti
LECT. II. 2
NOTES, CORRECTIONS, AND
ELUCIDATIONS.
LECTURE IV.
Vol. I. P. 1 12. To what is said in this page of the American
Mammoth it may be added, that Monsr. Cuvier is decid*
edly of opinion that it ought to be considered as an ex-
tinct animal greatly allied to the Elephant, and which he
calls Le Grande Mastodonte. The tusks he thinks were
situated in a similar manner with those of the Elephant,
and it appears to have been provided with a similar trunk
or proboscis. See the work entitled Annales du Museum
d'Histoire Naturette. No. 46.
LECTURE VI.
P. 215 — To what is here said of the Dodo add, that
in some modern publications this bird is, by an enormous
error, said to have no claws. This I suppose must have
arisen from a typographical error iri Gmelin's edition of
the Systema Naturae, where the description added to the
specific character of the Dodo, concludes with the words
unguibus nullis instead of unguibus pullis, dusky or black
claws*
NOTES, CORRECTIONS,
LECTURE VII.
Vol. II. P. 5. 1. 16.— The Amphibia whose eggs hatch
internally, as Vipers, &c. should be termed ovi-viviparous,
LECTURE XI.
P. 168. — The genus Teredo, though differing widely
in habit from most of the testaceous animals, will be
found, if accurately considered, to approach in point of
fabric to the inhabitants of the bivalves ; and the jaws, as
they are commonly termed, are in reality a pair of valves,
and somewhat resemble those of the genus Pholas.
P. 181. — The inhabiting animal of the genus Pinna is
in reality allied to that of Mytilus or Muscle. Its ana-
tomy is detailed in the work of Poli.
P. 189. 1. 13. — The Bivalve Shells are increased by a
constant succession of new laminae, as well as by the en-
largement of the outline or circumference of the valves.
LECTURE XII.
P. 218. — The figure accompanying the short descrip-
tion here given of the Vorticella racemosa is taken from
a small specimen, and though executed with sufficient
fidelity as to its general appearance, fails in expressing;
th& incomparable elegance of the animal itself. Indeed
AND ELUCIDATIONS.
it is scarcely possible by any figure to express the genuine
habit of the animal, especially when arrived at its full
growth, when the branchings are extremely numerous.
It may be added that two or three distinct species of this
kind of compound Vorticellae exist, which are all evidently
confounded by Linnaeus and some others under the name
of Vorticdla anastatica. Their general mode of growth
or increase is as follows : viz. the first or parent animal
swims single, and is furnished with an extremely short
stem, hardly equalling the length of the body ; but
which, in a few hours, extends to a surprising degree,
and becomes the chief or general stem: after this the
body divides longitudinally, forming two distinct and
similar bodies, whose respective stems very soon begin to
lengthen, and, after some hours, each of these two bodies
again divides, forming double the former number. This
method of increase is continued till all the numerous
branches of the animal tree are formed ; and when it has
thus remained for the space of eight, ten, or even many
more days, the several animals separate, in succession,
from their respective branches or stems, and swim about in
order to form new colonies ; so that in the space of some
days the tree is left perfectly bare. To this, which is the
general mode of increase, the accurate Muller has added
a still more surprising one, viz. that the naked stems again
repullulate, producing new heads or bodies in place of
those which have departed. This latter mode of increase,
I must confess, has never yet fallen under my own ob-
NOTES, £c,
servation, and is allowed to be somewhat doubtful even
by Muller himself.
P. 216. — The distich quoted in this page is not from
Pope's Essay on Man, but from a poem by Boyse.
ERRATA.
VOL. I.
LECT. I. p. 22. I. 11. For say she read says he.
II. p. 40. 1. 1. For manner read manners.
II. p. 5p. in the note. For preferred read referred.
III. p. 81. 1. 2. For oviparous read ovi-viviparous.
III. p. 85. 1. 18. For Ichnuemon read Ichneumon.
III. p. 88. 1. 6. For £e« z'ra Me upper read /e« in Me upper jaw.
IV. p. 120. 1. 18. For z'w Me mcmM read &y Me mouth.
IV. p. 124. 1. ult. For descendents read descendants.
IV. p. 139. 1. 9. For /owger read larger.
V. p. 158. 1. 10. For hypochondriac and unpygial feathers
read hypochondrial and uropygial feathers.
V. p. 176. 1. 2. For Tinian read Quibo.
V. p. 182. 1. 12. For seem to have leen copiedt read seem to
have leen all copied.
VI. p. 209. 1. 22. For Carthage read Cathaye.
VI. p. 241. 1. 19. For o read of.
VOL. II.
VIII. p. 65. 1. 5. For it will read he ivill
VIII. p. 65. 1. 21. For one intermixed read once intermixed.
IX. p. 1 10. 1. 17. For Class read Order.
• IX. p. 112. 1. 14. For one read once.
X. p. 145. 1. 20. For S. S. read G. S.
XII. p. 207. 1. 21. For Gorgoniap reiiosa read Gorgonia pr(-
tiosa.
T. DAVISON, Printer,
BBr
University of Toron
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