THE BEHAVIOR OF THE SHORE-ANEMONE 321 



juices incident to the digestion of the food already taken in 

 by the action of the tentacles of the other side. 



As previously stated, depending upon the size of the piece 

 of food taken in, either a part or the whole of the disk and 

 tentacles is involved in the feeding reaction. In order to deter- 

 mine what effect this factor might have in the relative respon- 

 siveness of the two sides, two specimens were fed large pieces 

 of oyster, thus causing the greater portion of the tentacles of 

 the anemone to come in contact with them during the feeding 

 response. The oyster was given to the tentacles of the right 

 side, which in one anemone accepted five times successively, 

 in the other anemone seven times. Then the oyster was offered 

 to the tentacles of the left side of each anemone. In one case, 

 the tentacles slowly accepted one piece of oyster; in the other,, 

 the meat was refused entirely. 



An anemone which was previously tested and found to accept 

 food quickly upon its being given opportunity to do so, was 

 made to contract for a dozen successive times as the result of 

 mechanical stimulation with a sterile glass rod. Oyster was 

 then given to its tentacles, and was accepted for eight times, as 

 many times as the average individual of those experimented 

 upon would accept food without having been previously stim- 

 ulated mechanically. This would seem to indicate that the 

 factor of muscular fatigue is not a significant one in the modifi- 

 ability in response to food, except as it is perhaps incident to 

 a depression from mucus secretion. This experiment was several 

 times repeated with a similar result. 



The matter of giving the tentacles food and allowing them 

 to carry it to the oesophagus and then removing it before it 

 was swallowed was also tested. It was found that after about 

 the normal number of times for the acceptance of food, the 

 tentacles would fail to respond, seeming to indicate that refusal 

 of the food material is very largely if not entirely a matter of 

 the responsiveness of the tentacles, especially since the mouth 

 is always, even under the most adverse circumstances ready 

 enough to accept food given to it. Allabach (1905) has found 

 that Metridium will accept food placed over its mouth until 

 the body of the animal is gorged, and ejecting this accumulated 

 amount, the mouth will again accept food placed over it. The 

 same worker has tested the matter of feeding the animal but 



