213 



On a Method of Examining the Anatomy of Actinia mesembry- 



anthemum, with some Results. 



4 



By Francis Alfred Bedwell, M.A., F.K.M.S. 



(Bead April 25, 1879.) 



Plates XL, XII. 



Part I. 



The extraordinary difficulties surrounding a practical study of the 

 anatomy of the Actinidce can only be appreciated by those who have 

 encountered them. No treatise gives us any account of a dissecting 

 operation. Mr. Gosse* mentions his success in treating Tealia cras- 

 sicomis with laudanum ; while Frey and Leuckartf, after admitting 

 that for a long time they were quite baffled, add that they found this 

 same species in Heligoland in great quantities in an enfeebled state, 

 and that thus only were they enabled to make out what they record. 

 Mr. TealeJ, in his paper on the subject, shows such an intimate 

 acquaintance with individual parts that he must have possessed 

 some excellent contrivances for dealing with specimens, but, unfor- 

 tunately, he mentions none. 



The method which I am about to describe can only be applied to 

 A.mesembryauthemwn. It is as follows : Take a specimen of the 

 Actinia in the left hand ; place the thumb on the centre of the base 

 and the second finger on the oral aperture ; tarn the base upper- 

 most, and, with a fine pair of curved scissors, make round the thumb 

 a circular cut in the base concentric with its margin, and about the 

 size of a sixpence. This circular cut alone will not free the insular 

 piece, and the scissors must be quickly inserted on the under side of 

 it, and a few snips given close to its under surface and made in a 

 plane parallel to that of the base itself. The piece will now come 

 away, and there will be left, supported by the second finger of the 



* Gosse, " Actinologia Brit.'' Introduction, p. 15. 



f Frey and Leuckart, " Worhellosen Thiern'' (1847), p. 1. 



X Teale, " Leeds Phil. Trans.," Vol. I. (1834), p. 91. 



