THE BLOOD OF ANEMONES. 275 



as the globules seemed most abundant in the youngest 

 specimens, the idea occurred to me that Dr Williams 

 had only examined the fluid of young Actinice, and had 

 concluded that what was true of them was true of adults. 

 This idea, however, grew less and less plausible on 

 reflection. That a young animal should have a circu- 

 latino' fluid hi2;her in character than the fluid of the 

 adult, seemed unreasonable. While thus speculating, 

 I observed a great irregularity in the size of the glob- 

 ules ; sometimes they seemed united together in con- 

 siderable masses. To pursue the investigation closer, I 

 opened the cavity with a needle, and let out the fluid : 

 to my surprise, these floating globules turned out to be 

 no chyle-corpuscles, but the yellow spherical cells (?) 

 abundant in the tentacles of the adult Daisy, and the 

 tentacles of the Anthea, and which give the broT\aiish 

 colouring to its body (see p. 165). What may be the 

 function of these yellow spheres, I know not ; but it is 

 certain they are not the corpuscles of a circulating fluid 

 (they are stationary in the adult), although I must 

 sup230se Dr Williams and Professor Schmarda have 

 mistaken them for such, since no other definite glob- 

 ules are discoverable ; and these circulate only in the 

 young.* 



Parenthetically it may be mentioned, that in Profes- 

 sor AUmann's recently published MonogTaph on the 

 Fresh-iuater Polyzoa, the subject of the chylaqueous 



* In the Annals of Natural History, 1858, vol. i. p. 174, Mr GosSE has 

 published observations in support of Dr Willl\ms's opinion, but his 

 observations seem to me wanting in the requisite fulness and rigour. 



