SEA-MA T MAKERS. 297 



Polyzoa, with somewhat the form of a zoophyte. The 

 terminal and outside cells will be those of young 

 polypes, and under, or adjoining these, mature and 

 vigorous individuals, below these will be found cells 

 for the most part destitute of tenants. In the 

 majority of these dead cells will be found a dark 

 spherical body, of brownish substance, enclosed 

 within a membraneous cyst, or bladder, and this has 

 been called the " brown body " ; two or more may 

 be found in the same cell. What are these " brown 

 bodies," and what are their functions? "They 

 have been regarded as the remains of dead polypes, 

 as ova, as ovaria, as statoblasts, as a secretion from 

 the endocyst, as a store of nutriment for the young 

 polypes, as a reproductive body formed out of the 

 stomach of the decaying polype." 1 Observers are 

 generally agreed in that it is derived from the sub- 

 stance of the polype. Certain writers have contended 

 that it is nothing more than the remains of the old 

 polype, only a mass of inert material, waiting to be 

 ejected from the cell. Whatever it may prove to be, 

 it has undoubtedly been derived from the polype, 

 which inhabited the cell, and is the result of its 

 decline. Another class of authors contend that the 

 " brown body" is capable of originating a new 



1 See "Contributions to the History of the Polyzoa," by 

 T. Hincks, in Quart. Journ. Micr. Science, vol. xiii. (n.s.) p. 24. 



