THE BLOOD OF ANEMONES. 271 



constcantly sucking in and pouring out sea water, for 

 on this mainly depends their nutrition. Keep one in 

 a vase, without feeding it, without even suffering visible 

 food to float in the water, and it will nevertheless feed 

 and flourish simply by this absorption of water, which 

 contains gases and invisible organic particles. 



I had three Daisies in a vase for nine weeks, during 

 which time they were entirely without food, except 

 such as the water held in solution. They were as 

 healthy and active all the time as any others, and I 

 believed they would have continued so to the end of 

 the chapter. The experiment is worth trying. 



Far as this is from the notions current respecting 

 the nutrition of Anemones, it is easily demonstrable. 

 In the preceding chapter I showed that the supposed 

 " digestion " of the Anemone was confined to the 

 pressing out of the juices, and the rendering soluble, 

 by maceration, of organic substance ; I have now to 

 show that this animal is not only without "blood," 

 in any proper sense of the term, but also without that 

 simpler forai of blood named " chylaqueous fluid " by 

 Dr Williams and succeeding writers. 



This will probably startle the reader, especially if 

 he happen to have seen the writings of Dr Williams, 

 who actually figures the chyle-corpuscles of the Ac- 

 tinise, and declares that the fluid gives an albuminous 

 reaction. But with the highest respect for that ob- 

 server, repeated investigations, which have subsequently 

 been confirmed by the well-known zoologist, Mr R Q. 

 Couch, compel me to declare that no such fluid circu- 



