^UW VIEWS OF ANIMAL TRANSFORMATIONS. 631 



Hydra or of a Medusa. In one Agalma we find, as in the Hydrac- 

 tinia, nourishers supplied with one long tentacle, of which a single 

 touch produces a severe burning sensation, a sort of fish -line, which in 

 large species is capable of capturing fishes. Besides the nourishers, 



i)-"- 



Fig. 6.— Hidden-eyed Medusa. 



7. — GONOPHOBE OF OKE OF 



THE Campanularida. 



are found individuals without a mouth, which are only reproducers, in 

 the neighborhood of which are sexual individuals resembling Medusae 

 in form. All these individuals are fixed upon a common axis, which 

 floats like a serpent in the water, where it is sustained by an air-vessel 

 forming its superior extremity. Two series of sterile Medusae appear 

 underneath this bell, a gang of oarsmen (physales), to which the col- 

 ony abandons the care of locomotion. 



These various parts are in all respects too much like the Hydras and 

 Medusae for us to refuse them the character of individuals ; the Agalma 

 and other Siphoniferse are true societies or colonies. But here most of 

 the individuals can not separate themselves without danger of death ; 

 and, in certain cases, they all coordinate their movements that the col- 

 ony may perform certain acts. For example, in the Portuguese men- 

 of-war (Fig. 8) the physales frequently change their course, and then 

 all the individuals of the colony concur in the operation. They 

 have, then, a will which controls them — a will that can find the 

 grounds of its decisions only in a sort of social consciousness, ele- 

 vating the colony to the rank of a psychological unit. Composed of 

 individuals each of which is equivalent to those Hydras or Medusae 

 that live free and isolated and sufficient for themselves, every Si- 

 phonophore must still be considered in its turn as a single animal 



