78 



THE INDIVIDUALITY OF 



<pr 

 f 



all this, we must look upon what is left and what is taken away 

 as two peculiar kinds of individuals, inasmuch as each leads an 

 independent, self-sustaining life. 



veloped eggs imbedded in the 

 substance of the slender body 

 (p) which hangs down like 

 the tongue of a bell. The 

 main portion of it consists of a 

 jolly -like, bell -shaped body, 

 (///) within whose thickness 

 four canals (c, c 1 ) are hol- 

 lowed along four equidistant 

 lines, from where the tongue 

 (proboscis 7;) of the bell is 

 I attached, to the edge, where 

 they join another canal (cr) 

 which goes around it. At 

 each point of juncture (r) of 

 the four canals and the circu- 

 lar one, a long, slender hollow 

 feeler (/) is attached. The 

 proboscis ( /;>) takes food in 

 through an aperture, the 

 mouth, at its end ; the food 

 is digested within the. same, 

 and then, in a fluid state, 

 circulates through the canals 

 and into the hollow feelers. 

 Putting together now the organization of this body and the digestion of food 

 which is carried on within it, there would not seem, at first, a possibility for a 

 doubt even that the medusa is a perfectly independent organism, an individual; 

 but a few days' acquaintance with the career of these budding bells, during the 

 latter part of the breeding season, brings a totally different interpretation to 

 one's mind. Along in March, (see Agassiz's " Contributions," vol. iv. p. 189,) I 



Fig. 42. Coryne mirabilis. Ag. The head of one of the hydroids, late in the 

 breeding season, magnified 50 diameters, m, the mouth; rf, digestive cavity; 

 rfi, prolongation of d into the reproductive organs ; <, tentacles of the hydroid ; 

 pi; jor 1 , the proboscis-like body of the reproductive organs crowded with eggs ; 

 ;- 2 , the hollow of pr, pr l , communicating with d through d* ; cA, the longi- 

 tudinal, and ch l the circular canals corresponding to c, c 1 , cr, of fig. 41 ; f, the 

 rudimentary feelers. Original. 



