

TAILED PRIAPULUS. 257 



The Priapulus is one of the most curious animals in- 

 habiting the British seas. It is shaped like a dice-box, 

 with a curious pyramidal filamentous tail at one end, and 

 an equally curious sub-conical trunk at the other. When 

 dredged up it presents little appearance of its tail, and still 

 less of its trunk ; but if left undisturbed for a few moments 

 the shapeless lump of white flesh, for such it seems to be, 

 becomes suddenly animated, and with a fierce energy 

 assumes its true form, and jerks out its cartilaginous pro- 

 boscis to its full proportions, changing in a moment its 

 size from half an inch to as many as four or five inches. 

 Then it will as suddenly withdraw its trunk within its 

 body, the puzzle to the spectator being as to where it con- 

 trives to pack it, especially as on anatomical examination 

 we find a fair supply of digestive, circulating, and other 

 apparatus already stowed inside. It is of a bluish-white 

 or pinkish colour, the body being finely striated longi- 

 tudinally with distant striae, which are crossed by others, 

 but the reticulations are not so evident about the centre. 

 The proboscis, which swells out towards its extremity, is 

 striated only in one direction, namely, longitudinally. 

 The body is truncate posteriorly, and shaped like the 

 mouth of a trumpet, out of which comes the long white 

 pyramidal tail, composed of a number of hollow filiform 

 processes, whirled round a common axis, each circle di- 

 minishing in size towards the extremity. We find the 

 anus opening at the extremity of this remarkable appen- 

 dage, which Sars regards as an organ of respiration. A 

 microscopic examination of this singular appendage in the 

 living animal is most desirable, as it possibly may be 

 furnished with some singular ciliary apparatus. The 

 intestinal canal is simple, and on the abdominal surface a 

 white line is seen running along the centre, which is com- 

 posed of vessels and nerves. 



