Page:The Last link.djvu/64

52 or flat-worms—is very hypothetical. They are bilateral gastræads, with a flattened oblong body, furnished with ciliæ, with a primitive nervous system, simple sensory and reproductive organs, but still without appendages, body cavity, vent, and blood-vessels. The nearest living representatives of such creatures are the acœlous Turbellarians—e.g., Convoluta, a free-swimming, ciliated creature.

7. The next higher stage is represented by such low animals as the Gastrotricha—e.g., Chætonotus among the Rotatoria, which differ from the rhabdocœlous Turbellarians chiefly by the formation of a vent and the beginnings of a cœlom, or cavity, between gut and body wall. The addition of a primitive vascular system and a pair of nephridia, or excretory organs, is first met with in the Nemertines.

8. These, together with the Enteropneusta (Balanoglossus), are comprised under the name of Frontonia, or Rhynchelminthes, and form the highest group of the Vermalia.