66 VERMES. 



It had thus undergone an extraordinary change from its meagre, lank, and 

 empty form in abstinence. Now it was rather of a greyish-green colour. 



Stones or clean shells should be always stored in the vessels of such 

 animals, for they never fail to encircle them as the knot wherein the 

 body is involved gradually unfolds, which prevents rupture, either on 

 account of unmanageable length, or of immoderate repletion. A glass 

 cylinder was here substituted, which the animal encircled for want of 

 another hard substance. In a year and ten months from the date of ac- 

 quisition, it extended two feet and half, when it was delineated for the 

 third time. Fig. 6. 



Owing to accidental impurity of the water nearly a year afterwards, 

 the body of this growing specimen ruptured into several parts, some of 

 them surviving for about another year. Thus the animal lived entire 

 towards four years in captivity, during which time it had attained com- 

 pletely three feet or more in length ; and, including the separated por- 

 tions, its survivance extended towards five years. Though enlarging 

 rapidly, if we take the preceding facts as the ordinary course of nature, 

 this creature's life should be of long duration. 



In examples originally of considerable size, rupture into parts of all 

 different dimensions soon after being taken frequently occurs, when a very 

 remarkable process follows in the eversion of the interior. The intesti- 

 nal organ having separated spontaneously, the portions are so many tubes, 

 when the purple velvety outside becomes the inside. How this ensues 

 can be explained only by presuming, that one extremity of the hollow tube 

 folding inwards is followed by the rest, until the inversion is complete. 



Though I do not recollect to have witnessed the permanent preser- 

 vation of such ruptured animals or their parts, amputation of the ragged 

 extremities of specimens will save them, when vigorous reproduction 

 will sometimes ensue. Indeed, this is a precaution to be adopted with 

 many of the lower and simpler animals ; removal of the injured flesh 

 or skin, leaving only that which remains unhurt or entire, commonly 

 proves beneficial. One having ruptured the day after arrival, I severed 

 about six inches of the anterior part of the body for preservation. From 

 the great lubricity of the surface, it is ready to elude even the sharpest 



