VITALITY OF SEPARATED PARTS. 57 



I was examining one of those white filaments which certain 

 Actinice copiously throw out when disturbed. The filament 

 is nothino- but a delicate membranous tube covered with 

 vibratile cilia, and enclosing, I believe, a still more delicate 

 tube, filled with graimles and those thread-capsules which 

 anatomists declare (erroneously, as I shall prove hereafter) 

 to be the urticatino- or stiiioino; cells. Such is the structure 

 of this filament, which, although it had long been removed 

 from the animal, was twisting and twirling itself like a 

 worm in an unhappy state of mind, and moving across the 

 stage with motions it was impossible to distinguish from 

 voluntary motions. I then crushed it into many minute 

 fragments ; but long afterwards I observed some of these 

 moving about like so many animalcules. Another day I 

 observed what seemed a tiny white annelid crawling at the 

 bottom of a vase ; on securing it, I found it was one of the 

 Actinia's filaments. 



It may be answered that this motion was not life : in 

 both cases it was only ciliary action. But do not let us 

 cheat ourselves with phrases. What is the motion of early 

 embryos but ciliary action? and what is explained by the 

 phrase ? I see movements as spontaneous as those of 

 animals ; I see these movements so directed that obstacles 

 are avoided ; and you want to put me ofi" with a phrase. 

 Where then does life begin ? In that foot-pan you see a 

 dozen lovely Medusm, swimming to and fro with their 

 laborious pulsating movements — are those movements the 

 finger-posts of vitality ? Well, then, now attend : yester- 

 day I was dissecting some of these, and, while examining 



