FUNCTION OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM 243 



the nervous system with the external world : others, in some 

 instances at least, are probably directly connected with 

 muscle-fibres. 



We thus see that while the manubrium of a medusa has 

 the same simple structure as a hydranth, or what comes to 

 the same thing as a Hydra, the bell has undergone a very 

 remarkable differentiation of its tissues. Its ordinary ecto- 

 derm cells instead of being large and eminently contractile 

 form little more than a thin cellular skin or epithelium over the 

 gelatinous mesoglcea : they have largely given up the function 

 of contractility to the muscle processes or fibres, and have 

 taken on the functions of a protective and sensitive layer. 



Similarly the function of automatism, possessed by the 

 whole body of Hydra, is made over to the group of specially 

 modified ectodermal cells which constitute the central 

 nervous system. If a Hydra is cut into any number of 

 pieces, each of them is able to perform the ordinary move- 

 ments of expansion and contraction, but if the nerve-ring 

 of a medusa is removed by cutting away the edge of the 

 bell, the rhythmical swimming movements stop dead : the 

 bell is in fact permanently paralyzed. 



It is not, however, rendered incapable of movement, for 

 a sharp pinch, i.e. an external stimulus, causes a single con- 

 traction, showing that the muscles still retain their irritability. 

 But no movement takes place without such external stimulus, 

 each stimulus giving rise infallibly to one single contraction : 

 the power possessed by the entire animal of independently 

 originating movement, i.e. of supplying its own stimuli, is 

 lost with the central nervous system. 



Another instance of morphological and physiological 

 differentiation is furnished by the pigment spots or ocelli 

 (Fig. 54, c, oc) situated at the bases of the tentacles. They 

 consist of groups of ectoderm cells in which are deposited 



R 2 



