60 Mr Patterson on a Species ofBeroe 



tached to these mutilated parts, retained all their former mobility 

 unimpaired. The most damaged of these heroes was then cut 

 with a pair of scissors into several pieces, and each part exhi- 

 bited in its cilia the same undiminished rapidity of movement. 

 One of these portions was again subdivided into parts so minute 

 as to possess only one, or at most two cilia on each, yet no 

 change in the ceaseless motion of these extraordinary organs took 

 place. Thirty-three hours after this minute subdivision, several 

 of them were vibrating as usual ; and, at the expiration of forty- 

 two hours, the two cilia belonging to one fragment shewed un- 

 diminished activity. 



On one occasion one of the heroes died during its confinement 

 in the glass jar. I then took the body, made in it a longitudinal 

 incision, and placed it in the small concave glass belonging to 

 the microscope. In the course of a short time, the substance of 

 the body had melted down into a homogeneous watery mass. 

 Soon, however, the warm air of the sitting-room caused some of 

 the fluid particles to evaporate, and the residuum gradually as- 

 sumed greater opacity and consistence, displaying in a confused 

 manner the two tentacula, and different bands of ciha. These, 

 when the evaporation was complete, remained as if delicately 

 painted in distemper colours on the glass, and were removed by 

 a touch of the finger as completely aS if they had never appeared 

 in any more animated state of existence. 



Although, from this circumstance, it is obvious that the quan- 

 tity of solid matter which enters into the composition of their 

 bodies, must be extremely trifling, they possess a greater degree 

 of firmness and consistency than is generally supposed. Fre- 

 quently have some of them dropped from my net into the boat 

 when about transferring them to the glass vessels in which they 

 were kept ; and, at such times, I have invariably lifted them in 

 ray fingers, and placed them with their companions, without 

 their having received any apparent injury. If the finger be 

 pressed against one recently dead, the beroe will not, by such a 

 pressure, be changed into a broken and shapeless mass. It will, 

 on the contrary, by its smoothness and elasticity, slide from be- 

 neath the finger. My observation, therefore, does not confirm 

 the remark of Blainville, " a peine est il touche, qu'il est brise 

 et reduit en morceaux." — {Manuel cV Actinologie, p. 150.) A 



