CHAPTER IV. 
EXPERIMENTS IN SECTION OF COVERED-EYED MEDUSZ. 
Amount of Section which the Neuro-muscular 
Tissues of the Meduse will endure without 
suffering Loss of their Physiological Continuity. 
THE extent to which the neuro-muscular tissues 
of the Medusze may be mutilated without under- 
going destruction of their physiological continuity is 
in the highest degree astonishing. For instance, to 
begin with the covered-eyed Meduse, I shall briefly 
state three modes of section, the results of which serve 
to show in a striking manner the fact in question. 
The annexed woodcuts represent the umbrella of 
Aurelia aurita, with its manubrium cut off at the 
base, and the under or concave surface of the 
umbrella exposed to view, shewing in the centre 
the ovaries, and radiating from them the branched 
system of nutrient tubes. The umbrella when 
fully expanded, as here represented, is about the 
size of a soup plate, and, as previously stated, all 
the marginal ganglia are aggregated in the eight 
marginal bodies or lithocysts. Therefore if the 
reader will imagine the first of the diagrams (Fig. 8) 
