■SO Mr C. Collier on the Sea-Slug of India. 



bodies, which, in some individuals, are red, and in others greyish 

 white. And attached to this mass by cohesion, is a loose con- 

 geries of white, narrow, delicately serrated, filamentous particles, 

 which are so glutinous as to adhere to objects, and are highly 

 elastic. Some of these filaments are often seen issuing, as it were, 

 from the posterior opening ,• and they are always first protruded. 

 In small and apparently young individuals, these parts are 

 scarcely to be discerned. If these be the sexual organs, the mode 

 of reprod uction and the kind of influence which may be mutual- 

 ly exercised, seem to be beyond the reach of observation, and to 

 admit, therefore, of no elucidation. 



The covering without is, as has been observed, black, beset 

 with papillae, and it gives off a slight purple tint, such as that of 

 Murcx Tulipa ; within, it is furnished with delicate transverse 

 fibres, and broad muscular bands, which are extended from the 

 posterior extremity, and attached to the gristly circle of the 

 mouth, or to the summit behind the mouth. A membrane is 

 extended across the posterior extremity, and beneath it lies the 

 contracted termination of the intestine ; and within its laminae 

 commences apparently the system of the circulation. 



The Tripang, Sea-Slug, or Holothuria Trade in India. By 

 the Editor. 



This animal is used very extensively by the Chinese for 

 culinary purposes. They make of it a very rich and palatable 

 soup, and dress it in different kinds of stews. There are va- 

 rious modes of curing it. It is first gutted, and the water 

 pressed out of it, and then laid in dry lime, called by the na- 

 tives chunam ; afterwards, according to the circumstances of 

 the fishing station, dried in the sun, or on stages, by means of 

 fires of wood under them. It is a most important article of 

 commerce, and is the most considerable article of the exports of 

 the Indian islands to China, unless, perhaps, pepper. There 

 are fisheries, as they are called, of Tripang, in every country of 

 the Indian Archipelago, from Sumatra to New Guinea. It 



a des vers, et formes chacun d'un fil mince, assez elastique, contourne en spi- 

 rale, et se lais.sant de'rouler. Ces organes auroient ils quelque rapport avec le 

 sex male ?" Vol. v. p. 200. The ovary-like mass weighs, in some indivi- 

 duals, nearly two ounces. 



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