Gastric, Vitelline Animals—Infusoria.
3462. The Infusoria admit of being reduced to three divisions: the lowest of which, such as the Infusoria proper or Monades, are provided for the most part with cilia; the next in succession, as the Rhizopoda, possess extensible processes, and are mostly covered by a multi-chambered shell; lastly, the most perfect Infusoria have all kinds of internal organs, and especially what has been called rotatory apparatus, as being the dawn of future tentacula.
3463. These three Families obviously correspond to the three classes of the present circle, and that indeed as follows:
To the first class, or Infusoria proper, correspond the Monades.
To the second class, or Polyps, the Rhizopoda.
To the third class, or Acalephæ, the Rotifera.
3464. The Monades are obviously the simplest organized creatures, being mucous vesicles, which move, obtain their food by stirring up vortical currents in the water, and emit what is undigested again by the mouth.
3465. They occur very abundantly in all infusions, and can very well originate, like Fungi, by division of the organic mass, although they are in a condition to propagate themselves, i. e. by spontaneous division.
3466. The Monades are the semen of the animal kingdom, which is dissolved in, or rather produced from, the sea.
3467. The animal body is nothing else than a compound fabric of Monads.