DISPROOF OF URTICATING POWER. 157 



tory in our supposition ; " some superacklition to the 

 thread-cell would seem to be essential to the urticat- 

 ing faculty," he says, when speaking of the Jellyfish, 

 " since these cells are present in species and parts that 

 do not stino:." It is to be resetted that he was not 

 moved by this doubt to a closer examination of the 

 evidence on which the urticating faculty rested ; he 

 would assuredly have been led to the belief that no 

 superaddition to the thread- capsule will account for 

 the phenomenon. 



But I waive the argument derived from such a 

 source, and, confining myself to the Anemones, ask the 

 reader what he thinks of this awkward fact, namely, 

 that these urticating capsules are most abundant in 

 parts which do not urticate ? Only the tentacles have 

 this power, and although they have numerous capsules, 

 the m'tication cannot well be attributed to them, since 

 these capsules are more abundant in the " convoluted 

 bands," in the lining wall of the stomach, and in the 

 blue spots which surround the oral disc in the Smooth 

 Anemone — these spots, indeed, being made up of such 

 capsules and small granules — yet in not one of these parts 

 can the slio;htest urtication be traced ! How is this ? 

 If these capsules are the nettling organs, why do they 

 not nettle in those parts where they are most abund- 

 ant ? No one has thought of asking this question. 



It thus appears that many animals having the cap- 

 sules, have none of the power attributed to the capsules ; 

 and that even in those animals which have the power, 

 it is only present in the tentacles, where the capsules 



