BOLOTHUftlA. Cl 



A fortnight Inter they had extended half an inch, and noun- had fourteen 

 twig*. Thus the evolution of each part is successive. 



A< tin- dark internal suhstanee apparently augmented a month be- 

 fore this latter jx-riod, it might be from the early regeneration of the ar- 

 l>ores<vnee. though imperceptible to huinan oli-ervation. 



Tin- treat uiv <le.-line.l from the first of November. It shrunk -\ 

 traordinarily, at length remaining but an inch in extent, and a quarter 

 I' an inch thick. The intestines protruded by a rupture in the side; 

 ami it died on the eleventh having survived just about seven mouths. 



To me it seems doubtful whether any individual of the /fn/ot/im-in 

 funt, young or old, large or small, is exempt from such mutilation. 

 which is so common as to be apparently incident to all. The lx>dy then 

 seems an empty sac : yet, by some elements of organization still preserved, 

 rather than to be ascribed to new depositation, it becomes turgid from 

 absorption of the circumambient fluid, the same as when entire. Per- 

 haps the absorbents, still unknown, may be connected with the respira- 

 tory organs, which are certainly retained. I have never observed them 

 discharged along with the interanea. The precise quantum of organiza- 

 tion lost on such occasions merits farther investigation. It may compre- 

 hend some important parts which are readily overlooked. 



The position and functions of the respiratory organs art* more 

 favourably exposed in the subject of the preceding paragraph, the Hdo- 

 t/inria pento' 



Professor Delle Chiaie remarks, that some of his Holothuria? sur- 

 vived the loss of the intestinal canal fifteen days, not a few hours only, 

 aa had been advanced by Bohadsch. It is uncertain whether either of 

 these authors had seen the/rw ; probably not. The latter, Bohadsch, 

 says he was " struck dumb with astonishment ou finding the intestinal 

 canal full of sand, discharged from the posterior extremity of one" he 

 had carried home from the shore. He had concluded that the purpose 

 of this mutilation was for the intestine to carry out the ovarium along 

 with it. But he seems to have changed his opinion : and he obviously 

 mistakes the ovarium for intestinal caeca. Bohadsch considers it almatt 



