FRESH-WATER ANIMALS. 297 



the head, and a new head, with a complete circle of ten- 

 tacles, to the body ; and the vital functions appear so little 

 disturbed by the operation, tliat young polypes will be form- 

 ing on the separate parts of the parents during the process 

 of restoration. The result is similar if the body be cut in 

 strips lengthwise ; each strip will close round into a tube, 

 and its proper circle of tentacles made up. It is also 

 possible to turn the body inside-out as you would turn a 

 stocking, and yet all the functions of life would proceed 

 as before; digesting food within the sac, and reproducing 

 without. 



Triton cristatus. — (Plate XIX.) 



Some years since, the village of Walton-on-Tliames " was 

 thrown into a state of considerable excitement,^^ as the 

 newspapers say, by the writer, then a little boy, passing 

 through it with a prize in his pocket-handkerchief. The 

 prize was a living creature, which unfortunately contrived 

 to escape for an instant through the folds, and while being 

 recaptured, was seen by a woman standing at the cottage 

 door with a child in her arms. Greatly alarmed, she called 

 out to know if the silly boy wanted to get poisoned, and so 

 carrv death into his home. She communicated her alarm 



