272 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



lates in the Actinia — an assertion wliich can readily 

 be tested. The water is easily forced out of the ten- 

 tacles, or collected by cutting open the Actiniae in a 

 glass. Evaporate it, and you will find it to be sea 

 water, holding sometimes organic particles in solution. 

 Test it with concentrated nitric acid, and instead of 

 becoming turbid, as it would if it contained albumen 

 in solution, it remains unaltered, except that, when 

 organic particles are present, they become distinct. 

 Examine the fluid with the microscope, and you will 

 find animalculse and various particles, but nothing like 

 definite corpuscles, such as are visible in the true 

 chylaqueous fluid. It is, in short, sea water and no- 

 tiling more. 



Eeeling that in thus opposing the positive state- 

 ments of an accomplished zoologist like Dr Williams, 

 I might very possibly be under some error of observa- 

 tion, or interpretation, I requested Mr R. Q. Couch to 

 repeat the investigation, that I might either be cor- 

 rected or confirmed. He very kindly undertook the 

 task, and thus wrote : " I took two specimens of the 

 spotted Mesemhryanthemum, and forced the water 

 from the tentacula, and found, under the microscope 

 of 300 linear, numerous infusorial creatures rapidly 

 moving about. On treating this with nitric acid, I had 

 a slight opalescent deposit, or rather a diffused milky 

 cloud of very slight character. The next day I obtained 

 several from our rocks, and again forcing the water out, 

 I obtained two specimens of a microscopic nudibranchi- 

 ate mollusc, and other creatui'es of similar character." 



