DIGESTION IN THE ANIMAL SERIES. 229 



preciable difference between tlie contained meat, and 

 similar pieces of meat left in the water during the 

 same period ; in one of them which had the meat pro- 

 truding somewhat from each end of the quill, there 

 was a maceration of the protruded ends, which looked 

 like a digestive effect ; but on submitting it to the 

 microscope, I found the muscle-fibres not at all disin- 

 tegrated, the stride being as perfect as in any other 

 part, and the maceration obviously of a purely mecha- 

 nical nature. A similar appearance is presented by 

 meat, after its ejection by the Actiniae : it is pulpy, 

 colourless, but the muscles are not disintegrated. 



Mr E. Q. Couch, of Penzance, was good enough 

 to repeat these experiments for me. " I folded por- 

 tions of whiting in test-papers," he writes, '' and gave 

 them to the Actinise. After 12 hours the whole was 

 ejected without the papers being either broken or 

 discoloured. I placed bits of mackerel in gutta-percha 

 silk with the same result. Taking other specimens, 

 which I kept fasting for a fortnight, I gave each a 

 portion of the silvery part of a mackerel, measured 

 its leno;th, and weiarhed it in a delicate balance. In 

 one case the fish was ejected after 23 hours, and in 

 another 32 hours, and in several others about 18 and 

 20 hours. The parts were folded on each other, and 

 compressed into oval masses which, with the point of 

 a pen, I could unravel easily. In measure they were 

 precisely as I had given them. In weight there was a 

 difference : in one case, 9 grs. were reduced to 5 J grs. ; 

 in others, 8 grs. to 5 ; 11 grs. to 5 ; 7 grains to 3 J. 



