i28 EVENINGS AT THE MICKOSCOPE. 



swiftly, and sometimes more deliberately. Nothing 

 that I have seen would lead me to conclude that the 

 wall of the cnida is ciliated. 



" I consider, then, that this fluid, holding organic 

 corpuscles in suspension, is endowed with a high 

 degree of expansibility ; that, in the state of repose, 

 it is in a condition of compression, by the inversion of 

 the ecthoroBum / and that, on the excitement of a suit- 

 able stimulus, it forcibly exerts its expansile power, 

 distending and, consequently, projecting, the tubular 

 ccthoroeum — the only part of the wall that will yield 

 without actual rupture." 



It has been proved that the execution of thet-e 

 weapons is as efiectual as their mechanism is elaborato. 

 The wire shot with such force penetrates to its ba-se 

 the tissues of the living animals which the Anemone 

 attacks, when its barbs preclude the withdrawal of ihe 

 dart. But the entrance of bodies so excessively slen- 

 der would of itself inflict little injury ; there is evi- 

 dently the infusion at the same time of a highly subtile 

 poison into the wound ; some venomous fluid escaping 

 with the discharge of the ecthorcBum, which has the 

 power, at least when augmented b}- the simultaneoub 

 intromission of scores, or hundreds, of the weapons, ot 

 suddenly arresting animal vigour and speedily de- 

 stroying life, even in creatures — flshes for example — far 

 higher than the zoophyte in the scale of organization. 

 I have seen a little tish in perfect health come in 

 accidental contact with one of the acontia of an irritat- 

 ed Sagartia, when all the evidences of distress and 

 agony were instantly manifested; the little creature 

 darted wildly to and fro, turned over, sank upon the 

 bottom, struggled, flurried, and was dead. 



