244. TRANSACTIONS OF THE [JUNE 4, 
ON THE SEA ANEMONES OF SWAT.LOW HOUSE OR CAVE IN THE 
ROCKS AT NAHANT, NEAR LYNN, MASS., BY REV. MANASSEH 
CUTLER. 
The great interest attached to this account arises from the 
fact that it is believed to be a record of the earliest, if not the 
only study, of this class of animals in America in the last cen- 
tury, and has only now, after the lapse of ninety-seven years, 
been brought from its hiding place to the knowledge of the 
public, and is wholly unknown to our most eminent scholars in 
this department of Natural History. 
Mr. Cutler was elected a member of the American Academy 
of Arts and Sciences at its first business meeting, January 31st, 
1791; and as our New York Academy is one of the oldest in 
the United States, it is that well the paper should appear in 
its Transactions, and thus become known to science. 
This account of the Sea-Anemone is found among Dr. Cutler’s 
papers, p. 468, VI.’ 
‘*The Sea-Anemones are a most singular species of animals, 
approaching nearly, if not nearest, to the connecting link be- 
tween the animate and inanimate creation. We have had no 
account of the discovery of the Sea-Anemone on American 
shores until the year 1791. 
In the month of June, 7th, Dr. Cutler, with the Rev. Dr. 
Prime of Salem, in company with several other gentlemen, 
visited the cavern in the rocks on the southern side of Nahant, 
in Lynn, called the Swallow House, for the purpose of search- 
ing for them. At the bottom of the cavern, after the tide had 
receded, they found great numbers of different sizes and a great 
variety of colors. 
The general form of this singular animal, when moderately 
contracted, is nearly like that of a truncated cone with its base 
adhering to the rocks; but it has the power of assuming a 
variety of shapes. The position in which some of them ap- 
peared resembled a full-blown anemone; others approached 
nearer the flower of a large rose or poppy, and some were 
extended in an oblique direction, with the leaves so much 
contracted as to exhibit only their margin in the form of a 
fringe. 
When the arms or leaves of the larger ones were fully dis- 
1 Life of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL.D., by his grandchildren, 2 vols. 
Cincinnati, 1880. Robt. Clarke & Co. 
