146 A. DISSOLUTION OF PARTNERSHIP 



elongated body. We had no suspicion of the impending change, 

 and therefore gave but little heed to the animal, notwithstanding 

 the singularity of its appearance. But an hour afterwards the 

 body of the animal was partially separated into two nearly equal 

 semicircular portions, which were connected together by a number 

 of cords, that for the most part were stretched tensely across 

 between the diverging portions. 



Watching the progress of the change with a lens, these cords 

 were seen to be gradually pulled in by one side or the other, until 

 the only ones remaining were the two which connected the upper 

 and the lower edges of the now widely separated portions of the 

 divided animal ; and on each of these there hung a flaccid and per- 

 fectly helpless tentacle, that on the upper cord being suspended 

 midway between the two severed portions of the animal. Half 

 an hour after this the two portions had become entirely discon- 

 nected from each other. A little later, the smaller of the two 

 detached itself from the glass and dropped to the bottom of the 

 tank, where it lay utterly prostrate and helpless, giving no other 

 indication of life than an occasional slight movement of one of 

 the tentacles. In about two hours, however, it had so far re- 

 covered its strength as to be able to attach itself again to the glass, 

 when it slowly crawled up the vertical side of the vessel, atid took 

 its place near the other half of its former self. The other portion 

 maintained its place on the glass, and eagerly caught at a small 

 piece of whiting that was offered it ; but swallowing was out of 

 the question, for they had divided the original mouth between 

 them ; and after holding the fish for a while it let the prize go, 

 and feebly drooped its tentacles, the perfect picture of an invalid. 

 Before many days had passed the sides of both animals had 

 regularly closed up, and within a fortnight the half mouth had 

 in each case become a very efficient swallowing organ, and the 

 animals ate and grew apace quite as well as before the dissolu- 

 tion of their partnership. 



It sometimes happens that specimens of diantlms and the com- 

 mon Smooth Anemone are found, in which two mouths, each with 

 ts own set of tentacles, spring from a common body ; a state of 

 things brought about probably by the self-dividing process having 

 been commenced and then permanently stopped short. In still 

 rarer instances the division of the Anemones has been observed 

 to take place horizontally, the upper half of the animal moving 



