INTRODUCTION, 



tion to the theory of the germ-capsule ? At a certain stage 

 the bud, whether developed at a greater or less distance 

 from the "brown body," approaches it, 

 extends its substance over it, and finally 

 lodges it in its stomach, the walls of 

 which completely close around it (Wood- 

 cut, fig. xxvii.). Thus engulfed it serves 

 (he conjectures) as a store of nutriment for 

 the growing structure. 



Joliet, on the other hand, has witnessed 

 in one species the same process of inges- 

 tion ; but the " brown body " was subse- mach. B. Brown 



... ., , ,, . . ,. , body, inclosed in 



quently driven through the intestine and tnelatter 

 expelled unaltered through the anus. In 

 another species it was enveloped by the bud, and dissolved 

 in its stomach ; the coloured granules composing it were 

 retained for a short time only, and then rejected*. These 

 observations are precise, and leave no doubt as to the facts. 

 In the cases to which they refer, the relation between the 

 " brown body " and the bud is, of course, totally different 

 from that which is assumed in the theory of Smitt. The 

 young polypide, instead of originating from the former, 

 becomes the channel through which it is removed, as a 

 useless encumbrance, from the cell. Again, in other 

 cases the " brown body " has a different destiny : in these 

 it seems to be (sometimes at least) separated from the 

 funiculus and cast to one side of the cell, as so much 

 lumber. These facts, unsuspected when my observations 

 were made, seem to me, I confess, to have a most im- 

 portant bearing on the point at issue, and to call for a 

 careful reconsideration of the whole question. 



* In such a case it is by no means improbable that the " brown body " 

 pays toll of nutritions matter to the polypide as it passes outward. 



