52 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



self in full black ; and the next morning he was dead. I 

 grieved for him, and, as a consolation — dissected him. 



This was my constant solace, when I found — as, alas ! 1 

 often found — that some of my pets had departed. The 

 zoologist softened, the anatomist was resolved. I had lost 

 a pet, and gained a "preparation." Grief gave way under the 

 scalpel. Science dried afflicted eyes. Nay, shall I confess 

 it ? Many a time I have had the unfeelingness to eye a pet 

 with an undertaker's glance, almost wishing it would die, for 

 the sake of its corpse. And when this was the case, you 

 may be sure I bore the aimouncement of mortality with 

 something of that fortitude displayed by legatees when a 

 choleric old gentleman, or a lady of starched and vigorous 

 virtue, departs this life, leaving a trifle in the 37o- Death 

 was no finale to me. The closing scene was only the close 

 of an act, after which the curtain rose once more, the drama 

 culminating in interest. A thousand problems assailed the 

 mind, a thousand strange thoughts arose as I penetrated 

 deeper and deeper into the mysteries of these various organ- 

 isms, and mused upon their many paradoxes. Here was an 

 animal without a heart ; there, one without a liver — nothing 

 but quantities of hepatic cells distributed along the course of 

 the alimentary canal. Here was an animal breathing by means 

 of his legs ; and here one not breathing at all. Here was a 

 mollu.sc with its intestine passing through its heart; here 

 another with teeth in its stomach ; and here an animal (the 

 Physalia) digesting its food before swallowing it — that is to 

 say, perfoi-ming the act of chymification before the act of 

 deglutition. Here M'as an animal of two sexes, and here one 



