SEA-ANEMONES I THEIR WEAPONS. 3G-) 



or to an actual epiderm,* which, though often ruptured, 

 lias ever, with the aptitude to heal common to these 

 lowly structures, the power of quickly uniting again. 



It appeared to me manifest, from this and other similar 

 observations, that no such arrangement exists as that 

 which I had fancied — that a de6nite cinclis is assigned 

 to a definite acontium, or pair of acontia ; and that the 

 extremity of the latter is guided to the former, with un- 

 erring accuracy, by some internal mechanism, whenever 

 the exercise of the defensive faculty is desired. What I 

 judge to be the true state of the case is as follows : The 

 acontia, fastened by one end to the septa, or the mem- 

 branes which support them, lie, while at rest, irregularly 

 coiled up along the narrow interseptal hollows. The 

 outer walls of these hollows are pierced with the cinclides. 

 When the animal is irritated, it immediately contracts : 

 the water contained in the visceral cavity finds vent at 

 these natural orifices, and the forcible currents carry 

 with them the acontia, each through that cinclis which 

 happens to lie nearest to it. The frequency with which 

 a loop is forced out shows that the issue is the result of 

 a merely mechanical action ; which is, however, not the 

 less worthy of admiration because of the simplicity of 

 the contrivance ; nor the less manifestly the result of 

 Divine wisdom working to a given end by perfectly 

 adequate means. The ejected acontia, loaded with their 

 deadly cniclce in every part of their length, carry abroad 

 their fatal powers not the less surely than if each had 

 been provided with a proper tube leading from its free 

 extremity to the nearest cinclis. 



Curious as these contrivances are, there is yet much 

 more to be told : these are preparatory and ancillary, as 

 it were, to the elaborate mechanism by which the ultimate 

 object of the whole provision is to be attained. The 



* The outer covering of the external surface of the body, commonly 

 called the cuticle or scarf-skin. 



