LOBSTER. 247 



are able to give, the crab, lightened of so great an incum- 

 brance, has sought shelter in its hiding-place. It is by the 

 short and quickened muscular action of the limb itself, and 

 not by any effort of the body or peduncle that this is ef- 

 fected ; as the convulsion will continue for a considerable 

 time after the separation, it follows that the twisting off of 

 the claw, where the animal has seized human flesh for in- 

 stance, or any other sensible object, is the direct way to in- 

 crease the violence of the grasp. Any or all the legs may 

 be thrown off on the receipt of injury, but not with equal 

 facility in all the species ; for in some, as in the com- 

 mon crab, if they be crushed or broken without great 

 violence, they are sometimes retained, and the creature 

 will in no long time bleed to death. To save the crab 

 the fishermen proceed to twist off the limb at the pro- 

 per joint, or give it a smart blow, when it is rejected ; 

 and in either case the bleeding is stopped. Fracture 

 of the crust at the extreme points of the legs is not 

 much regarded ; for, being filled with an insensible cel- 

 lular membrane, no violent action is excited in the muscu- 

 lar structure, and the part seems capable of some attempt at 

 restoration, at least sufficient to render the evil endurable 

 until the period of a general renewal of the surface. 



After the loss of a limb, a considerable time elapses 

 before any attempt at restoration is visible : but under 

 some circumstances the process is much accelerated ; and 

 while it is advancing, it is commonly found that the flesh 

 of the creature is unusually flaccid and watery. In the 

 most common species, the first appearance of the new 

 limb is in the middle of the scar, from whence proceeds 

 a soft member of minute size, doubled on itself, but with 

 all the proper proportions, and enclosed in an exceedingly 

 fine membrane, by which it is bound down. Much of the 



