2G2 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



SO with respect to this on the fluid of the ActinicB. The 

 result lias been seen. It throws a new difficulty in the way 

 of rightly understanding the processes of Nutrition ; but it 

 is a step towards a right understanding, because it removes 

 an explanation which, seemingly true, masked the real pro- 

 cess. It also gives the final blow to those gratuitous deter- 

 minations of special "organs of secretion" in the Actiniae ui 

 which zoologists have revelled. If there is no blood, there 

 can be no secretions from the blood ; and all attempts at 

 fastening a secreting function on the " convoluted bands " 

 may a priori be dismissed : I say a piriori, because no one 

 has yet attempted, by chemical tests, to prove the presence 

 of bile, or urea, or any other product of secretion in these 

 organs ; and as, therefore, the function is assigned on a 

 2iriori grounds, on those grounds may it be dismissed. 



On closer inspection this conclusion becomes more impera- 

 tive. The enormous mass of these convoluted bands, formuio; 

 by far the largest organ in the body, forbids the idea of 

 its function being that of secreting urea. It is true that 

 Bergmann and Lelickart suggest this to be then- function ; 

 so does ]\I. Hollard ; and Victor Cams speaks with some deci- 

 sion on the point.* But I would ask these eminent writers 

 how they reconcile such a supposition with anatomical and 

 physiological considerations? There are no vessels in the 

 Actmise which would convey the products of disintegrated 

 tissue to these secreting organs. If such products are thrown 

 into the fluid of the general cavity, they wiU be got rid of as 



• V. Cabus : System der tliier. Morphologie, p. 148. 



