Mr. A. H. Hassall's Catalogue of Irish Zoophytes, 281 



cated are the means which he employs for the attainment of 

 his projects ; and often how inefficient are they for the fulfil- 

 ment of the end proposed, and how easily are they overturned 

 and annihilated by the intervention of some natural cause — 

 his greatest labours and most cherished hopes frequently 

 being dashed to the ground or buried in the deep by some 

 earthquake or storm ! 



"Zoophytes/^ to adopt the language of Dr. Johnston, " pre- 

 sent to the physiologist the simplest independent structures 

 compatible with the existence of animal life, enabling him to 

 examine some of its phaenomena in isolation, and free from 

 the obscurity which greater complexity of anatomy entails. 

 The means of their propagation and increase are the first of a 

 series of facts on which a theory of generation must arise ; 

 the existence of vibratile cilia on the surface of the membrane, 

 which has since been shown to be so general and influential 

 among animals, was first discovered in their study, and in them 

 is first detected the traces of a circulation carried on inde- 

 pendently of a heart and vessels. The close adhesion of life 

 to a low organization ; its marvellous capacity of redintegra- 

 tion ; the organic junction of hundreds and thousands of in- 

 dividuals in one body, the possibility of which fiction had 

 scarcely ventured to paint in its vagaries, have all in this class 

 their most remarkable illustration." 



I have ascertained that all the more transparent Zoophytes 

 possess highly luminous properties. This fact I first disco- 

 vered in a specimen of Laomedia gelatinosa, and subsequently 

 in a great variety of other species. If a portion of it, adhering 

 to the sea- weed to which it is attached, be taken from the 

 water and agitated, a great number of bright phosphorescent 

 sparks will be emitted ; these sparks proceed from each of the 

 denticles of the coralline containing polypi, and the phaeno- 

 menon is equally apparent, whether the specimen be in or out 

 of water. The imagination could scarcely conceive a more 

 beautiful spectacle than would be furnished by the shining of 

 countless myriads of these tiny lamps, lighting up the dark 

 recesses and caves of the ocean. I lately had an opportunity 

 of beholding this novel and interesting sight of the phospho- 

 rescence of Zoophytes to great advantage, when on board one 

 of the Devonshire trawling-boats which frequent this coast. 

 The trawl was raised at midnight, and great quantities of coral- 

 lines were entangled in the meshes of the network, all shining 

 like myriads of the brightest diamonds. 1 would advise any 

 person wishing to witness this beautiful spectacle on a large 

 scale, to sally forth some dark night to the sea- shore, and dis- 

 turb, either with a stick or the foot, the sea-wrack left by the 



