THE BLOOD OF ANEMONES. 273 



I may observe that the slight milky cloud here 

 spoken of occurred once, and only once, in my exam- 

 inations, showing it therefore to arise from an acci- 

 dental, not a constant element. " A third and a fourth 

 experiment," continues Mr Couch, " was made on others 

 taken from our rocks in a contracted state, and con- 

 sequently empty. I placed them in sea water, which I 

 had repeatedly filtered through sand, and afterwards 

 cloth. In this they remained till to-day, when, taking 

 them in an expanded state, I put them to drain in a 

 small glass dish. In this I could discover nothing 

 organic, and it gave no cloudiness by nitric acid. As 

 these experiments are quite in accordance with others 

 made some years since as regards their results, I 

 regard this fluid as merely sea water free from every 

 admixture of secreted matter.'' 



Nothing can be more explicit, however startling the 

 result. In the presence of such evidence, one is amazed 

 to re-read Dr Williams when he says : " The surround- 

 ing water enters the stomach, where it briefly sojourns, 

 then passes through the opening at the bottom of the 

 great cavity of the body : in this cavity it remains for 

 a variable period ; it now injects the tentacles. Cor- 

 puscles now arise in the fluid; it becomes thicker in 

 consistence through increase of albumen : it is no longer 

 pure lifeless sea-water; it is a corpusculated chylaqueous 

 fluid : it is competent to serve the ends of nutrition. 

 Whence do the floating cells proceed ?— what produces 

 them? Certainly no solid organ; neither liver nor 

 spleen can in this case interpose its agency. Then, is 



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