THE MAGAZINE 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



APRIL, 1839. 



Art. I. — Observations on the Poulp of the Argonaut. By Madame 

 Jeannette Power. 



(Concluded from Page 106). 



Coming now to the most essential point of my researches, 

 that is, to verify, by unequivocal proofs, that the poulp con- 

 structs the shell of the argonaut, I can assert that my design 

 was at first to repeat the experiments of the celebrated Poli 

 on the eggs of this cephalopod, in which he discovered the 

 embrio of the shell. But I must confess that here I was un- 

 successful ; and indeed I obtained very different results from 

 my investigations. 



I repeated the experiments of the illustrious Neapolitan 

 physician, in company with my learned friend Dr. Anastasio 

 Cocco, of Messina, (famous for his ichthyological works), and 

 other persons, but nothing more was found than a group of 

 eggs in each individual, similar to millet seed, perfectly white 

 and transparent, attached by filaments of a brilliant gluten to 

 a common stem of the same substance. Three days after the 

 first observation, on visiting an argonaut, the little poulps 

 were found in it, already developed, but without shell, and 

 resembling worms ; and having at the inferior extremity a 

 spot of a brown colour, with some smaller ones disposed lat- 

 erally. These, when looked at in the microscope, were con- 

 cluded to be the viscera of the animal. This was their form 

 at the age of three days ; then they gradually began to show 

 prominences of a bud-like appearance, with two series of ob- 

 scure points, which are the rudiments of the arms and suck- 

 ers. The arms began to be distinguishable as such some days 



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