316 WILSON GEE 



METHODS EMPLOYED 



In the succeeding experiments, the animals were placed each 

 in a separate dish, twelve centimetres in diameter. Here they 

 were allowed to remain for two or three days so as to become 

 thoroughly acclimatized and normally responsive. Each indi- 

 vidual was tested to see that it accepted food before the injec- 

 tion of the chemical was made, and if it failed to do so, the 

 animal was not used in the experiment. 



With a thoroughly clean pipette, consisting of a glass tube 

 drawn out to a sufficiently small point, each substance was 

 forced through the mouth opening into the gastrovascular cavity 

 of the animal, or over the surface of the disk and tentacles 

 according to which was desired. As soon as the injection was 

 made, the water was removed from the dish, the specimen 

 thoroughly rinsed with uncontaminated sea water, and a quan- 

 tity of sea water equal to the original amount in the dish placed 

 over the anemone. The experiments were performed in the 

 strong diffuse light of the laboratory, in order to have the ani- 

 mals expand as soon as possible after treatment. The mechan- 

 ical part of the operation could in no way injure the body of 

 the specimen, since the point of the pipette was not left irregular 

 but was melted down to a perfectly smooth glass edge. 



RESULTS OF INJECTION ENPERIMENTS 



Pure sea water. — Some of the solutions were made up in sea 

 water, and in order to determine what effect the mechanical 

 part of the operation might have a dozen anemones were in- 

 jected with clean sea water. Contraction was of course pro- 

 duced as the result of the contact stimulus, but the anemones 

 almost immediately began to expand. Upon expansion their 

 reactions to food, mechanical stimuli, etc., appear entirely nor- 

 mal. A similar result was secured upon the injection of fresh 

 water. Thus there seems no "complicating factor in this regard. 



Sodium chloride. — (Normal solution in sea water and 3/8 

 normal in distilled water.) Immediately upon expanding after 

 injection, the tentacles showed normal responsiveness. No 

 mucus appears to have been secreted. The tentacles accepted 

 food readily upon its being given to them. A 5/8 M NaCl + 

 1/3 M NaCl was injected also but with the same result. 



