34 H ARC ITT 



appealed to as evidence of its derivation from the hydroid type, 

 the capacity of the medusa for regeneration and the tenacity 

 with which it maintains the medusan features would seem to 

 point with equal force in the opposite direction. While this 

 alone is not sufficient to settle a problem involving so many 

 factors, it none the less suggests the propriety of caution and 

 the necessity for further evidence than has yet been adduced 

 before any dogmatic or final statement is made. 



Concerning heteromorphosis the experiments were entirely 

 negative. A definite polarity seemed evident in every part of 

 the organism. It mattered not how small the fragment, or 

 from what source, or however varied the conditions under 

 which placed, the results uniformly indicated a definite intrinsic 

 orientation. 



If this might seem to imply a more fixed and constant hered- 

 ity and therefore to point toward a more primitive condition than 

 is usual in the hydroid, it is sufficient to call attention to the 

 no less fixed and inflexible polarity of Hydra. It would seem, 

 therefore, that on these points the facts are to be taken simply 

 for what they are, and not as affording any definite basis upon 

 which to speculate. 



SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY, SYRACUSE, N. Y. 

 October, 1896. 



