260 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



animalcule. This was the case with all of them ; and as 

 the globules seemed most abundant in the youngest speci- 

 mens, the idea occurred to me that Dr Williams had only 

 examined the fluid of young Actinice, and had concluded 

 that what was true of them was true of adults. This idea, 

 however, grew less and less plausible on reflection. That a 

 young animal should have a cii'culating fluid higher in 

 character than the fluid of the adult, seemed unreasonable. 

 While thus speculating, I observed a great irregulaiity in 

 the size of the globules ; sometimes they seemed united 

 together in considerable masses. To pursue the investi- 

 gation closer, I opened the cavity with a needle, and let out 

 the fluid : to my surprise, these floating globules turned out 

 to be no chyle-corpuscles, but the yellow spherical cells (?) 

 which fill the tentacles of the adult Daisy, and make solid 

 the tentacles of the A nthea, as well as give the brownish 

 colouring to its body (see p. 1 5G). What may be the function 

 of these yellow spheres, I know not ; but it is certain they 

 are not the corpuscles of a circulating fluid (they are station- 

 ary in the adult), although I must suppose Dr Williams and 

 Professor Schmarda have mistaken them for such, since no 

 other definite globules are discoverable ; and these circulate 

 only in the young. 



Parenthetically it may be mentioned, that in Professor 

 Allmann's recently published Monograph on the Fresh- 

 water Polyzoa, the subject of the chylaqueous fluid is 

 thus noticed : " It is by no means homogeneous, and nume- 

 rous corpuscles of very various and irregular shape may 

 be observed to float through it and be carried about by 



