DAVID B. SLAUTTERBACK 127 



ments, but I would say no, there is not. I think after it's fired there 

 seems to be quite an enlargement. 



LOOMIS: Do you picture the tube starting to be made at the 

 mouth of the capsule, and then progressing out, smaller and 

 smaller? 



SLAUTTERBACK: That's right, except that this capsule at 

 first is only a sort of crescentic shell or cup. It has not yet formed a 

 full flask-shape structure. 



LOOMIS : The tip, then, is the last part made? 



SLAUTTERBACK: Yes. 



LOOMIS: Is there anything like a hypostome or ring of produc- 

 tion around the capsule lip, so that the tip would be the first part 

 made as in a tentacle? 



SLAUTTERBACK: No sir, not at all. In fact, completely the 

 opposite. 



LANE: Would you like to speculate about the mechanism of 

 withdrawal of this externally formed tubule? 



SLAUTTERBACK: Maybe Dr. Fawcett would like to speculate 

 on that. 



FAWCETT: No, I would not. I am content to regard it as the re- 

 verse of the mechanism of firing! 



This is a minor point, but it may be of interest that the contents 

 of the nematocyst are not only highly diverse from one kind to the 

 other, but even the operculum is quite characteristic of the particu- 

 lar type of nematocyst. In this slide ( Fig. 1 ) is one quite different 

 from the one in Figure 2 and from any that Dr. Slautterback showed, 

 in that the operculum has an interesting laminated structure. I have 

 no idea as to what the significance of this lamination is. 



HAND : Do you know what nematocyst that is that you showed on 

 the slide? 



FAWCETT: No, I do not. 



WOOD: Hasn't the presence of some type of an intracapsular at- 



