I H IV. 9. 



of the body what she has first taken from the feet.^^ jhe Poulps, 

 then, owing to the length of their feet, can not only swim but 

 crawl, whereas in the other genera the feet are useless for the 

 latter mode of progression, being small while the bulk of thfe body 

 is considerable. These short feet would not enable their possessors 

 to cling to the rocks and keep themselves from being torn off by 

 the waves in times of storm ; neither would they serve to lay 

 hold of objects at all remote and bring them in ; but, to supply 

 these defects, the animal is furnished with two ^' proboscides, by 

 which it can moor itself and ride at anchor like a ship in rough 

 weather.^* The same processes serve also to catch prey even at 

 some distance and to bring it to the mouth. They are so used 

 both by the Sepias and the Caletmaries. In the Poulps the feet 

 are themselves able to perform these offices, and there are con- 

 sequently no proboscides. In all the Cephalopods that have 

 suckers on their feet and ^^ twining tentacles, these act in the 

 same way, and have indeed the same structure, as those plaited 

 instruments which were used of old by physicians to reduce 

 dislocations of the fingers.^^ The tentacles, like these, consist 

 of plaited fibreSj which act by pulling upon portions of flesh or 

 any substance of a yielding nature. The physician places his 

 instrument in a slackened condition round the finger ; and, when 

 it is put on the stretch, it grasps and clings tightly to whatever 

 may be in contact with its inner surface. The tentacles act in the 

 same manner, serving in place of hands for offensive or defensive 

 purposes, the Cephalopods having indeed no other instrument than 

 either feet or proboscides with which to lay hold on anything and 

 bring it to the mouth. 



The suckers are set in double line in all the Cephalopods 

 excepting in one kind of poulp, where there is but a single row.^' 

 The length and the slimness which is part of the nature of this 

 kind of poulp explains the exception. For a narrow space 

 cannot possibly admit of more than a single line of suckers. This 

 exceptional character, then, belongs to them, not because it is the 

 .most advantageous arrangement, but because it is the necessary 

 consequence of their essential specific constitution.^® 



In all these animals there is a fin, encircling the sac. In the 



Poulps and the Sepias this fin is unbroken and continuous, as is 



also the case in the larger calamaries. But in the smaller kind, 



called Teuthides, the fin is not only broader than in the Sepias 



685b. 



