Dr. Griffith on the Sacculi of the Polycjastrlca, 441 



The observations of Mons. Dujardin on this subject will be 

 found in vol. iii. p. 170. of this Journal. 



The objection (which M. Dujardin considers well-founded) ad- 

 vanced by J\I. Bory de St. Vincent, again presented by Dr. Foeke 

 and Prof. Rymer Jones, the latter of whose words we have just 

 quoted, rests on the inner motion of the globules or sacculi, which 

 " can in no way be reconciled \\ith the hypothesis of an intestine 

 connecting all these globules together, and which, on the con- 

 trary, proves their entire independence." The reader will be able 

 to estimate the validity of this objection when he has perused the 

 remainder of this paper. 



The following are the observations of Mr. Addison on this sub- 

 ject* : — " A singular fact f is stated with regard to the animalcules; 

 it may be witnessed in all of them by the liquor potass^. It pe- 

 netrates the transparent tunic composing the body of the animal- 

 cule by imbilntion, and soon causes it to burst open or explode, 

 and the so-called stomachs of the creatures are forcibly discharged 

 or thrown out one after another, thus becoming objects for minute 

 microscopical scrutiny. The stomachs (?) swell and burst in like 

 manner, precisely as the granules discharged from the lymph cor- 

 puscles of the frog. These stomachs he believes to be granulated 

 vesicles performing their functions by imbibition, and not by as- 

 similating or digesting food voluntarily taken. The vital powers 

 of the animalcules are totally inefficient in opposing the imbibi- 

 tion of the poison, and their stomachs may be seen enlarging in 

 the interior of the body prior to the ruptm-e of the integument." 



Dr. Carpenter says J, Ehrenberg's account of the numerous glo- 

 bular particles has been objected to by other observers, on the 

 ground that these particles are seen to undergo a regular move- 

 ment, as if they were floating in the midst of a fluid filling the 

 general interior cavity of the body, and that they are sometimes 

 discharged through the anal orifice. Of the validity of this ob- 

 jection his own observations have satisfied him. I cannot (says 

 he) " doubt that these particles are cells which float in the fluid of 

 the body, and elaborate the materials of its nutrition in the same 

 manner as do those of the chyle and blood of higher animals." 



Professor Owen^s observations § answer some of the objections 

 which have been raised to Ehrenberg^s views. He says (speak- 

 ing of the Enchelys pupa swallowing another animalcule nearly 

 equal to itself in bulk, and thereby undergoing a total change in 

 the form of its body), " but this may only imply great dilata- 



* Prov. Med. and Surg. Journal, Aug. 20, 1842. 



■\ These are not Mr. Addison's words, but an extract from his paper read 

 before the British Association made by the editor of the joui-nal. 

 X Brit, and For. Med. Review, Jan. 1843. 

 § Hunterian Lectures, 1843. 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Vol. xi. 2 G 



I 



