26 
so complex as those of Biology, this observation would have- 
confirmed the statements of Siebold, Corda, and Owen; viz.: 
that there is a secretion of a poison which enters the wound. But 
observation alone does not suffice. I bethought me of a simple 
experiment. With a needle I gently arrested one of these water 
fleas ; it suddenly sank motionless, remained thus for more than @ 
minute, and then darted off again. Thrice I repeated this act,. 
and each time with a similar result. Will anyone say the needle 
had a paralysing power, or a benumbing poison which was secreted 
when the animal came in contact with it? And, does not the 
reader at once recognise in this sudden motionlessness of the: 
animal a very familiar phenomenon? The spider, the crab, the: 
oniscus, and very many animals ‘sham dead,’ as schoolboys 
know, when danger threatens ; these water-fleas ‘sham dead’ 
when the Polype or the needle touches them. I might have vested 
my incredulity on this one experiment, but I confirmed it in other 
ways. Dropping the larva of a Sphemeon into the phial con- 
taining the Hydre, I observed it caught by three different Hydrae ; 
it did not ‘sham dead,’ but tore itself away without visible hurt. 
Nay, I also observed one of those animalcule known as ‘ paste- 
eels’ for some time in contact with the teutach of a Hydre on the 
stage of a microscope, but, in spite of its having no shell to pro- 
tect it from poison, it was unhurt by the contact. Not having a. 
Nais I could not test what Siebold says of it, but what has already 
been mentioned must, I think, suffice to convince the reader that 
the current opinion is an error, founded on observation unverified 
by experiment. It was only by verification according to the 
demands of inductive scepticism, that the error became obvious.” 
A few days after Lewes had written the above extract, he 
Obtained a supply of Naids, and found them, like the other speci- 
mens before acted upon, to be absolutely unhurt by the contact 
with the tentacles of Hydra. 
With regard to the power possessed by these ever moving limbs, 
if one may so call them, of the Hydra, Baker in the History of the: 
Polype writes: ‘‘’Tis a fine entertainment to behold the dexterity 
of a polype in the mastering of its prey, and observe with what art. 
it evades and overcomes the superior strength and agility thereof. 
Many times by way of experiment, I have put a large worm in the 
very extremity of a single arm, which was instantly fastened on it. 
with its little invisible claspers. ° Then it has afforded me in- 
expressible pleasure to see the polype poising and balancing the 
worm, with no less seeming caution and judgment than a skilful 
angler shows, when he perceives a heavy fish at the end of a single 
hair line, and fears, it should break away. Contracting the arm 
that holds it by very slow degrees, he brings it within reach of his 
other arms, which eagerly clasping round it, and the danger of 
