REGENERATION OF LOST PARTS. 245 



or four months all the lost parts are regenerated, 

 and the animal continues to live as if nothing had 

 happened. The details of this process the reader will 

 find in the following graphic narrative. 



Between a fortnight and three weeks after the 

 acquisition of a specimen of Holothuria fusus, says 

 Sir J. G. Dalyell*, the tentacular apparatus, imper- 

 fectly expanded, protruded for the first time along 

 with the cylinder upon which they are supported ; 

 from the upper part of the body next day a large por- 

 tion of the intestine descending from it came forth 

 also, and the animal, having crawled up the side of the 

 vessel, allowed most of the shelly fragments adherent 

 to its skin to fall off. No external symptoms of 

 suffering were demonstrated, yet it was reasonable to 

 apprehend that these and some other marks of weak- 

 ness were the prelude of decay ; and this apprehen- 

 sion was increased on witnessing the separation of 

 all the organs thus protruded from the body, which 

 dropped off on emptying the vessel for replenishment. 

 Still the Holothuria seemed no more affected than 

 before : assuming an oblique position, it mounted up 

 the side of the glass as far as the edge of the water, 

 where it remained immoveably fixed. 



The detached organs perished and decomposed in a 

 few days ; not so, however, the rest of the animal, 

 which survived for a length of time quite unaltered, 

 and indeed soon gave signs that Nature had some- 

 thing in preparation. 



The mutilation had occurred on the 4th of De- 



* The Powers of the Creator displayed in the Creation, vol. i. 

 p. 50. 



