and Urticating Cells. 261 
which Schultze (/. c.) discovered and all later observers have 
also found on the cnidoblasts is nothing but a pedicle which 
stands in direct connexion with the supporting lamella and 
represents a product of metamorphosis of a part of the plasma 
of that cell which also produced the urticating capsule in its 
interior. He states that this pedicle possesses the same 
optical and chemical properties as the supporting lamella. 
From his careful observations, extended over all groups of 
the Ccelenterata, he draws the conclusion that in a/J Cnidaria 
the process has only a supporting function. ‘To this induc- 
tion, as such, of course no certainty can be ascribed, and it is 
in fact not correct. 
Tn isolation-preparations of Cyanea Annaskala* I have 
often seen cnidoblasts the centripetal processes of which were 
in connexion with ganglion-cells of the subepithelial layer. 
Leaving this out of consideration, these processes are not 
hyaline, but granular, and not different from that part of the 
plasma which surrounds the urticating capsule and lies in the 
neighbourhood of the nucleus. Besides these urticating cap- 
sules, I have also described smaller ones in which I could 
detect no processes, and the discharge of which does not 
depend, like that of the large ones, upon the will of the ani- 
mal. Jyregard it as probable that these in reality possess 
such pedicles as Hamann describes, but which escaped me 
owing to their fineness. Thus I have found (/. ¢.) that the 
surface of the jelly beneath the urticating warts shows asperi- 
ties. These asperities resemble sharp-angled sea-waves ; and 
it is quite possible that fine threads issue from the projecting 
points and bear the small urticating capsules at their distal 
ends. 
With regard to the pedicles of the urticating capsules of a 
Syncoryne which I have carefully investigated, and which is 
characterized by its quadriradiate structure, I can completely 
confirm Hamann’s statements. The pedicle is perfectly 
hyaline and enlarged in a cup-like form at the distal extre- 
mity. 
It is otherwise with the urticating capsules of Meduse and 
Actiniz ; their processes are granular, and, as regards their 
substance, essentially different from the jelly and the sup- 
porting lamella. ‘They are always soft, generally curved, and 
exactly resemble plasma-cords. It can easily be shown that, 
just as in the tentacles of Cyanea, so also in the Actinie the 
discharge of the urticating capsules is dependent on the will 
of the animal, so that we must assume that some mechanism 
* Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool. Bd, xxxvii. p. 480. 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 5. Vol. xii. 19 
