FUNCTION OF THE CONVOLUTED BANDS. 2G1 



its current. Some of these corpuscles are, doubtless, sper- 

 matozoa ; others are of no definite shape, and look like 

 minute portions of the tissues separated by laceration. If 

 it be admitted, as I think it must be, that the perigastric 

 fluid consists maiidy of water which has obtained entrance 

 from without, it then corresj)onds to a true aquiferous 

 system subservient to a respiratory function. But it also, 

 without doubt, receives certain products of digestion, which 

 had transuded through the walls of the alimentary canal ; 

 it thus connects itself with the digestive system. It is, 

 moreover, the only representative of a sanguiferous circu- 

 lation, for in the Polyzoa there is certainly no trace of a 

 heart, nor can anything referable to a true vascular system 

 be detected." * 



Returning to the fluid in the cavity of the Anemones, 

 we see the necessity of a cultivated caution in the accept- 

 ance of statements in matters so complex as those of Biology. 

 The respect justly due to Dr Williams as an investigator, has 

 caused his views respecting the " blood series " to be accepted 

 without verification. As I make it a rule to verify every 

 one's statements, when they fall within my own investiga- 

 tions — ^believing with Harvey " how unsafe and degenerate a 

 thing it is to be tutored by other men's commentaries, with- 

 out making tryal of the things themselves, especially since 

 Nature's Book is so open and legible" f — I determined to do 



* Alljiann : Monograph of the Fresh-water Polyzoa. Published by the 

 Ray Society, p. 23. 



+ Harvey : Exercitations concerning the Generation of Living Creatures. 

 1653. 



