cephalous

Prof. Huxley applies the same principle in accounting for the remarkable, though normal, differences in the arrangement of the nervous system in the Mollusca, in his great paper on the Morphology of the Cephalous Mollusca, in 'Phil.

From all that has been stated, I think that it is now possible to form a notion of the archetype of the Cephalous Mollusca, and I beg it to be understood that in using this term, I make no reference to any real or imaginary 'ideas' upon which animal forms are modelled.

As the word archetype was borrowed from old metaphysical ideas dating back to the time of Plato, he took care to state that what he meant by it was no more than a form embodying all that could be affirmed equally respecting every single kind of cephalous mollusc, and by no means an "idea" upon which it could be supposed that animal forms had been modelled.

He shewed how the widely different groups of cephalous molluscs could be conceived as modifications of this structure, and extended the conception so as to cover all other molluscs.

The shell-fish with which he dealt specially were those distinguished as cephalous, because, unlike creatures such as the oyster and mussel, they had something readily comparable with the head of vertebrates.