136 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



prid(e) to the little pond, and patiently watched them swim- 

 ming to and fro. Repeatedly they touched the tentacles in 

 their course, but were not hurt, were even not arrested. At 

 length one was caught, and held for some seconds ; it then 

 fell to the bottom, and remained motionless for at least two 

 minutes, after which it started up, and was off as if its course 

 had never been arrested. This certainly had very much the 

 appearance of a case of slight paralysis ; the animal seemed 

 arrested by some benumbing influence, which for two minutes 

 rendered it powerless ; at the expiration of that time it 

 seemed to have sufficiently recovered itself to swim away. 

 If Observation alone sufficed, in questions so complex as those 

 of Biology, this observation would have confirmed the state- 

 ments of Siebold, Corda, and Owen. But observation alone 

 does not suffice. I bethought me of a simple experiment. 

 With a needle I gently arrested one of these water-fleas ; it 

 suddenly sank motionless, remained thus for more than a 

 minute, and then darted off again. Tlirice I repeated this 

 act, and each time with similar result. Will any one say the 

 needle had a paralysing power, or a benumbing poison which 

 was secreted when the animal came in contact with it ? And 

 does not the reader at once recognise in this sudden motion- 

 lessness of the animal a very familiar phenomenon? The spider, 

 the crab, the oniscus, and veiy many animals " sham dead," 

 as schoolboys know, when danger threatens ; these water- 

 fleas " sliam dead " when the Polype or the needle touches 

 them. I might have rested my incredulity of the alleged 

 paralysing influence on this one experiment ; but I confirmed 

 it in other ways. Dro])ping the larva of an Ephemeron into 



