44 
Now, we may compare these plants with one of the simpler 
forms of animal life, say for instance, the Octopus. The Octopus 
may be described as a combination of a central stomach with an 
apparatus for putting things into it—in its case a number of Zentacula 
ranged around for the purpose of grasping whatever comes, and, of 
course, the necessary machinery for assimilating what it swallows. 
So the Drosera consists of a stomach, or that which does duty 
for a stomach, an arrangement for putting things into it, and the 
machinery necessary for assimilating that which it receives. But 
the Octopus possesses one sense which these plants have not ; it 
does not require to put a thing into its stomach in order to find 
out whether or not it is good to eat. Some of you may have seen 
an account, which went the round of the papers, of an attendant 
who had occasion to go into the tank at the Brighton Aquarium, 
in which the Octopods are kept, having put on for the purpose a 
pair of those large heavy boots which are used by fishermen. The 
larger Octopus seized him by the leg, to which it held on with four 
of its ¢entacuda, while with the other four it kept a firm hold of the 
rocks at the side. The man struggled with all his might, but the 
Octopus held him as ina vice. At last the idea occurred to him 
of slipping his leg out of the boot and leaving the Octopus in 
possession. The Octopus held on to the boot for twenty minutes, 
at the end of which time it gave it up. Now, are we to suppose 
that the senses of the Octopus are so dull and slow that it requires 
twenty minutes in order to decide whether or not a thing is good 
to eat? Or is it not rather that there were exceptional circum- 
stances in the case, the boot being essentially an animal substance, 
and yet one of such a nature as to render it exceedingly uncom- 
fortable in the stomach of any animal? This I take to have been 
the case, and that under these peculiar circumstances the puzzled 
Octopus required a little time for consideration. Who can tell 
what chain of impressions was passing through that dull intelli- 
gence in the twenty minutes during which the Octopus was 
making up its mind whether or not the boot was good to eat ? 
But the Octopus showed more discrimination on this occasion 
than an animal usually supposed to be higher in the scale did 
; 
