142 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



the Anemones, yet a very plausible suspicion might 

 arise — and did indeed arise in my mind — throwing 

 doubt on results which were in contradiction to what 

 was reported of the fresh-water Polypes. Eead this 

 passage from the last edition of Owen's Lectures, bear- 

 ing the date 1855 : " That the tentacula have the 

 power of communicating some benumbing or noxious 

 influence to the hving animals which constitute the 

 food of the hydra, is evident from the effect produced, 

 for example, upon an entomostracan, which may have 

 been touched, but not seized, by one of these organs. 

 The little active crustacean is arrested in the midst of 

 its rapid darting motion, and sinks apparently lifeless 

 for some distance ; then slowly recovers itself, and 

 resumes its ordinary movement. Siebold states, that 

 when a Nais, a Daphnia, or the larva of a Cheironomus, 

 have been wounded by the darts, they do not recover, 

 but die. These and other active inhabitants of fresh 

 waters, whose powers should be equivalent to rend 

 asunder the delicate gelatinous arms of their low- 

 organised captor, seem paralysed almost immediately 

 after they have been seized, and so countenance the 

 opmion of Corda, that the secretion of a poison enters 

 the wounds." Such statements can only be set aside 

 by direct experiment ; and the superiority of Experi- 

 ment over mere Observation needs no argument. 



As a matter of observation, I too had been struck 

 with the fact noticed by Owen. I saw the tiny Water- 

 fleas drop apparently lifeless to the bottom of the 

 phial, after being some time held by the tentacle of 



