258 SERPULTD^. 



pauses in admiration. But if a drop of liquid mud falls amidst the 

 element from above, disturbing its purity, then, while the plume 

 unfolds to its utmost capacity, does the animal commence a slow 

 revolution, the body also passing around within the tube*. Now 

 are the thousands of cilia fringing the ribs of the branchiae discovered 

 to be in vigorous activity, and their office to be wondrous. A loose 

 muddy mass is soon afterwards visibly accumulating in the bottom 

 of the funnel ; meantime the neck or first segment of the body, rising 

 unusually high above the orifice of the tube, exhibits two trowels 

 beating down the thin edge as they fold and clasp over the mar- 

 gin, like our fingers pressing a flattened cake against the palm of 

 the hand. During these operations, muddy collections are seen de- 

 scending between the roots of the fans towards the trowels, while 

 another organ, perhaps the mouth, is also occupied, it may be, in 

 compounding the preparation with adhesive matter. Still does the 

 partial or complete revolution of the plume above, and of the body 

 within the tube, continue ; the bulk of the muddy mass diminishes ; 

 activity abates ; it is succeeded by repose, when the tube is found to 

 have received evident prolongation." 



There is no permanent or organic connexion between the worm 

 and its tube, but the worm never leaves it except under circumstances 

 which threaten a slow death. Removed from the tube by accident 

 the tenant cannot reoccupy it, nor reproduce another to cover its 

 nakedness. But it lies exposed ill at ease, and incapable of any 

 motion beyond a painful writhing ; casts off its ornaments ; becomes 

 weaker, and dies gradually downwards, — that is, the lower portion 

 of the body retains life for some time after the upper has been dead 

 and begun to decompose f. 



But so long as it remains within its tube there is no worm more 

 tenacious of life, nor any more richly endowed with the power of 

 repairing wounds and losses. The beautiful tufts on the head are 

 occasionally cast away, as if they were merely parts of its holiday 

 attire ; and the worm replaces them, with marvellous promptitude, 

 with a pair not inferior to the first in beauty. A large proportion of 

 the body may be amputated, and it will be restored ultimately to 

 entirety ; — and, what is truly wonderful of a creature so complicitly 

 and curiously made, a small portion of the abdominal part has, under 

 the nursing of Sir J. G. Dalyell, grown to be a perfect individual, — 

 having reproduced segments of its own kind, thoracic segments of 

 different character, and the head and all its garniture and bravery ! 



" At the depth of sixty .or seventy feet from the surface of the 

 sea, a black leather-like tube, about 2 feet long, is affixed by the 

 lower extremity to some solid foundation. Its position is erect, 

 gradually enlarging upwards from a very contracted basis, to nearly 

 the size of the little finger, or 5 lines diameter at the orifice. It 

 frequently resembles a reed or vegetable stem of stunted growth, as 



* Dr. Williams has explained the mechanism by which this revolution is effected. 

 —Report of Brit. Assoc. 1851, p. 205. 



t "The posterior extremity of the Amphitrite is much more tenacious of life 

 than the anterior. Its motion continues long after that of the rest has ceased, 

 and the whole animal may be literally said to die downwards." — Dalyell. 



