CHAP XVII. ABSORPTION BY THE QUADRIFIDS. 411 



to the larvae above referred to, that " usually in less 

 " than two days after a large one was captured the fluid 

 " contents of the bladders began to assume a cloudy 

 " or muddy appearance, and often became so dense 

 " that the outline of the animal was lost to view." 

 Tliis statement raises the suspicion that the bladders 

 secrete some ferment hastening the process of decay. 

 There is no inherent improbability in this supposition, 

 considering that meat soaked for ten minutes in water 

 mingled with the milky juice of the papaw becomes 

 quite tender and soon passes, as Browne remarks in 

 his 'Natural History of Jamaica,' into a state of 

 putridity. 



Whether or not the decay of the imprisoned animals 

 is in any way hastened, it is certain that matter is 

 absorbed from them by the quadrifid and bifid pro- 

 cesses. The extremely delicate nature of the mem- 

 brane of which these processes are formed, and the 

 large surface which they expose, owing to their number 

 crowded over the whole interior of the bladder, are 

 circumstances all favouring the process of absorption. 

 Many perfectly clean bladders which had never caught 

 any prey were opened, and nothing could be distin- 

 guished with a No. 8 object-glass of Hartnack within 

 the delicate, structureless protoplasmic lining of the 

 arms, excepting in each a single yellowish particle or 

 modified nucleus. Sometimes two or even three such 

 particles were present ; but in this case traces of decay- 

 ing matter could generally be detected. On the other 

 hand, in bladders containing either one large or several 

 small decayed animals, the processes presented a widely 

 different appearance. Six such bladders were care- 

 fully examined ; one contained an elongated, coiled- 

 up larva ; another a single large entomostracan crusta- 

 cean, and the others from two to five smaller ones, all 



