The VENTRICLE begins a little above the fourth division, where the oesophagus finishes, and terminates at the tenth division; it is about seven times longer than it is broad; the anterior part, which is the broadest, is generally folded. The folds diminish with the bulk, in proportion as it approaches the intestines. An assemblage of nerves cover the surface, it is surrounded by a number of aerial vessels, and opens into a tube, which Lyonet calls the large intestine. There are three of these large tubes or INTESTINES, each of which differs from the other so much, both in structure and character as to require a particular name to distinguish them; though this is not the place to enumerate these characteristic differences. As most caterpillars are endued with a power or faculty of spinning, they are provided with two vessels where the substance is prepared, which, when drawn out, and extended in the air, becomes a silken thread; these two vessels are termed the silk-vessels or tubes; in the caterpillar of the cossus, they are often above three inches long, and are distinguished into three parts, the anterior, the intermediate, and posterior. It has also two other vessels, which are supposed to prepare and contain the liquor by which it dissolves the wood on which it feeds. Thus have we endeavoured to give the reader some idea of the wonderful organization of this apparently imperfect animal. Assuredly the four-thousand[100] muscles employed in the construction of the caterpillar of the cossus cannot be considered without the deepest astonishment: their admirable co-ordination and junction with other parts equally numerous, yet all harmonizing and acting together as if they were essentially one, naturally lead the mind to consider the nature and perfection of creation, and to perceive that it is an exhibition of the highest wisdom; and that this wisdom, which in the minutest things gives evidence of such an immense attention to order and use, has, no doubt, framed the whole for some great purpose; but what that purpose is, exceeds the present limits of the human understanding to discover. [100] Lyonet sur la Chenille de Saule, p. 584. A DESCRIPTION OF SUNDRY MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS, EXHIBITED IN SEVERAL PLATES OF THIS WORK. OF THE LEPAS ANATIFERA OR BARNACLE.[101] Plate XIII. Fig. 1 and 2.