428 ALFRED O. GROSS 
this idea has arisen from certain pubHshed statements such as 
the following made by Prof. A. E. Verrill on page 318 of his 
repoi't upon the invertebrate animals of Vineyard Sound. ''It 
is a very active and voracious worm, and has a large, retractile 
proboscis, armed with two strong, black, hook-like jaws at the 
end, and many smaller teeth on the sides. It feeds on other 
worms and various kinds of marine animals. It captures its 
prey by suddenly thrusting out its proboscis and seizing hold 
with the two terminal jaws; then withdrawing the proboscis, 
the food is torn and masticated at leisure, the proboscis, when 
withdrawn, acting somewhat like a gizzard." This statement 
apparently was taken at its face value, and we find it copied into 
the various text-books and natural histories, of which the follow- 
ing taken from the Standard Natural History (vol. 1, p. 229) is 
one of many examples : " It is a very active and voracious worm 
terrible to smaller animals upon which it preys capturing them 
by its large proboscis which it suddenly thrusts out seizing its 
victim with the two large jaws which arm the tip of its efficient 
weapon of attack," etc. Verrill's statement has also misled 
investigators who have taken it for granted that the food of 
Nereis is animal. 
Prof. S. S. Maxwell, in his paper on the phj'siology of the brain 
of annelids, quotes Verrill, and later, on page 283, he describes 
the normal feeding reactions of Nereis virens as follows: "Wenn 
man ein Stlick Flitter, z. B., ein kleines Stiick von einem Wurm, 
auf eine Nadel spiesst und vorsichtig einem normalen Wurm 
reicht, kann man den Fressvorgang leicht sehen. Wenn man 
das Futter den Spitzen der vorgestreckten Fiihler nahert, kommt 
der Wurm gewohnlich ruhig naher. Dann zieht er den Kopf 
ebenso ruhig ein wenig zuriick, legt die Fiihler an den Korper 
und offnet den Rachen, um die Nahrung zu fassen." 
It was with the above conception that Nereis virens was a 
carnivorous worm, that the author began experiments on the 
sense of taste. A voracious worm whose food is other animals 
would be expected to have well-developed organs of taste. 
Various experiments were subsequently devised in an attempt 
to study the normal feeding reactions of the worms. Entire, as 
