310 NATURALIST'S CAB.INET. 



Contractile power Cursory remarks. 



sea, the respective parts would immediately join, 

 and the animal be restored to life again. 



There are, between the spiries, and disposed 

 in a continued longitudinal series on the several 

 divisions or regions of the shell, an infinite num- 

 ber of v.ery small foramina, communicating with 

 an equal number of tentactila placed above them. 

 These are the instruments by which the creature 

 affixes itself to any object, and stops its motions. 

 They are possessed of a very high degree of con- 

 tractile power, and are furnished at the extremi- 

 ties with an expansile part, which may be sup- 

 posed to operate as a sphincter, or as the tail of 

 a leech, in fastening the animals securely to 

 rocks and other substances to which they choose 

 to adhere. 



The shell of this animal, when deprived of the 

 spines, which often fall off" after its death, is of a 

 pale reddish tinge, and the tubercles on which 

 the spines are fixed appear like so many pearly 

 protuberances on the surface. 



These animals were used by the Romans, who 

 dressed it with mead, parsley, mint, and vinegar. 

 At Marseilles, and in some other towns on the 

 continent, this species is exposed for sale in the 

 markets as oysters are with us, and is eaten boiled 

 like an egg. It forms an article of food among 

 the lower class of people on the sea coasts of 

 many parts of this country, but does not seem to 

 have made its way to the tables of the opulent. 



