SEA- ANEMONES : THEIR WEAPONS. 429 



" Admitting the existence of a venomons fluid, 

 it is difficult to imagine where it is lodged, and how it 

 is injected. The first thought that occurs to one's 

 mind is, that it is the organic fluid wliich we have 

 seen to fill the interior of the cnida^ and to be forced 

 throuirh the evertins: tubular ectJwrceiun. But if so, it 

 cannot be ejected througli the extremity of the 

 edhorceiim, because if this were an 0])en tube, I do not 

 see how the contraction of the fluid in the cnida could 

 force it to evolve ; the fluid would escape through the 

 still inverted tube. It is just possible that the barbs 

 may be tubes open at the tips, and that the poison-fluid 

 may be ejected through these. But I rather incline to 

 the hypothesis, that the cavity of the ecthormim^ in its 

 primal inverted condition^ while it yet remains coiled 

 lip in the cnida, is occupied with the potent fluid in 

 question, and that it is poured out gradually within the 

 tissues of the victim, as the evolving tip of the wii'e 

 penetrates farther and farther into the wound." 



I do not think that the whole range of organic ex- 

 istence affords a more wonderful example than this of 

 the minute workmanship and elaboration of the parts ; 

 the extraordinary modes in which certain prescribed 

 ends are attained, and the perfect adaptation of the 

 contrivance to the work which it has to do. We must 

 remember that all this complexity is found in an 

 animal which it is customary to consider as of 

 excessively simple structure. But the ways of God 

 are past finding out. These are but parts of Ilia 

 ways. 



