PLANARIA FLEXILIS. 17 



contents of the stomach, and frequently it 

 carries a hump a quarter of an inch high. 



One of three planarise which had been co- 

 piously supplied with food, proved incapa- 

 ble of swallowing the whole quantity that 

 it had attempted, whence some part re- 

 mained protruding from the body. In this 

 condition, the animal^ as well as the others, 

 which had manifested nearly equal voracity, 

 sought the surface of the water, where 

 they lay supine and motionless. About 

 thirty hours afterwards, two of them exhi- 

 bited a singular spectacle : a wide rent ap- 

 peared in the middle of the body, tearing 

 it almost asunder ; while each endeavoured 

 to liberate itself of the half-digested food ; 

 and incipient rending nearer the edges was 

 also perceptible in the upper part of the 

 third. Previous to so unexpected a conse- 

 quence of repletion, indications which I 

 have never been able to verify, induced 

 me to suspect the probable existence of 

 apertures in different parts of the animal, 

 whereby the food proving incommodious or 



