THE COASTS OF SICILY. 45 



At the period of reproduction, the entire body of 

 the female Terebella becomes filled with eggs, which 

 by a mechanism which is not yet fully explained 

 are all thrown off simultaneously, and which being 

 retained by a sort of transparent jelly, form at the 

 entrance of the tube a very nearly spherical mass 

 of considerable size. Analogous phenomena occur 

 in the male Terebella, but the fecundating liquid 

 which is expelled by the latter diffuses itself freely 

 in the water, and flowing in all directions conveys 

 life to the germs, which are vivified by contact with 

 it. Here, as in fishes, nature seems to trust to 

 chance to secure the perpetuation of the species, yet 

 nevertheless everything is so arranged, that this great 

 end cannot fail to be fully accomplished. Among 

 the numerous masses of eggs that we had collected 

 in our glasses not a single one proved to be sterile, 

 the strongest evidence that all must have been brought 

 In contact with the vivifying liquid. 



As soon as fecundation is accomplished, the egg 

 of the Annelid becomes the seat of mysterious move- 

 ments, analogous to those which MM. Prevost and 

 Dumas * were the first to discover in the egg of the 



* M. Dumas, a member of the Institute, and professor in the 

 Faculty of Sciences and in the School of Medicine at Paris, owes 

 the high position which he occupies entirely to his own exertions. 

 He was scarcely apprenticed as an articled pupil to a pharmacien 

 of Geneva, when he became known for the perfection of his pre- 

 parations of iodine, and being soon afterwards associated with 

 Prevost, he undertook, in conjunction with that learned physician, 

 a series of researches on generation in general, on the embryology 

 of the Batrachians, &c. Being attracted to Paris by that secret 

 instinct which always draws to the largest theatre those who are 



