FUNCTION OF THE CONVOLUTED BANDS. 277 



tryal of the things themselves, especially since Nature's 

 Book is so open and legible"* — I determined to do so 

 with respect to this on the fluid of the Actiniae. The 

 result has been seen. It throws a new difficulty in the 

 way of rightly understanding the processes of Nutrition ; 

 but it is a step towards a right understanding, because 

 it removes an explanation which, seemingly true, masked 

 the real process. It also gives the final blow to those 

 gratuitous determinations of special " organs of secre- 

 tion '' in the Actiniae in which zoologists have revelled. 

 If there is no blood, there can be no secretions from 

 the blood; and all attempts at fastening a secreting 

 function on the "convoluted bands" may a priori be 

 dismissed : I say a priori, because no one has yet 

 attempted, by chemical tests, to prove the presence of 

 bile, or urea, or any other product of secretion, in these 

 organs ; and as, therefore, the function is assigned on a 

 priori grounds, on those gi'ounds may it be dismissed. 

 On closer inspection this conclusion becomes more 

 imperative. The enormous mass of these convoluted 

 bands, forming by far the largest organ in the body, 

 forbids the idea of its function beino- that of secretino; 

 urea. It is true that Bergmann and Leuckart suggest 

 this to be their function ; so does M. Hollard ; and 

 Victor Cams speaks with some decision on the point.-|- 

 But I would ask these eminent writers how they recon- 

 cile such a supposition with anatomical and physio- 



* Haryey : Exercitations concerning the Generation of Living Crea- 

 tures. 1653. 



t V. Carus: System der thier. Jlorphologie, p. 148. 



