526 W. B. HARDY. 



inserted through the mouth, injected a drop of sea water con- 

 taining the one in suspension or the other in solution. Later, 

 however, I was more fortunate, and succeeded in obtaining 

 specimens with food in the enteric cavity. In one case the 

 prey was a Crustacean of some considerable size, so that it 

 produced a very obvious bulging of the animal. 1 did not 

 witness the capture and ingestion of the prey, but the specimen 

 was killed before the digestive fluid had produced any change 

 in the tissues. Fig. 21 is taken from this specimen. It also 

 contained the remains of a previous meal in the lower part of 

 the enteric space. Other specimens furnished other stages, 

 and in this way, as a result of an examination of a large number 

 of animals, I was enabled to obtain a series representing, to a 

 certain extent, the various stages of digestion. 



Myriothela is carnivorous, and captures small Crustacea. 

 In one case the meal consisted of a half-digested egg, either 

 derived from the gonophores of the individual in question, or 

 from those of its neighbours.^ 



Digestion is carried on at first in the lower portion of the 

 tentacle-bearing region — that is, in that region where the 

 gland-cells are most abundant, and results in a disintegration 

 of the prey, brought about by the agency of the digestive 

 fluid. 



The gland-cells which first discharge their contents are 

 those in the immediate neighbourhood of the meal, but even 

 there all the cells are not affected at once, those which are 

 most loaded with granules probably being discharged first. 

 Some of the gland-cells in the proximal region of the blasto- 

 styles and in the foot may be found undischarged until nearly 



* The huge yolk-laden eggs, when set free from the gonophores, are taken 

 by tentacle-like bodies, tlie " claspers," which hold them while development 

 proceeds and until the actiuula hirva is fully formed. In March and April, how- 

 ever, the claspers are not always present, and the eggs formed then when ripe 

 arc shed and sink to the bottom, where they become attached. I think that 

 further research will show that these early eggs have a more direct develop- 

 ment than those formed later, and pass at once to the form of the adult without 

 the intervention of the free-swimming actinula stage. It was one of these 

 free eggs which apparently had found lodgment in the enteric cavity. 



