328 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



where they swim with successive pants, the Cydippes con- 

 stantly let themselves drop to the bottom, and rise the 

 next moment in graceful buoyancy, drawing their elegant 

 streamers after them, these streamers elongating as they 

 ascend, until from shrivelled threads they unfold into long 

 and gi'aceful forms, which, on coming into contact "W'ith any 

 object, shrink rapidly again into their former shrivelled con- 

 dition. All this while the locomotive paddles of cilia sway 

 the animal with restless grace — a charming spectacle ! After 

 admiring it abundantly, you may commence a closer inspec- 

 tion of the creature's structure, which is sufficiently curious, 

 but need not detain us here, because you may see in any 

 text-book what is known, and I know nothing more than 

 what is there recorded. One remark only need be made : 

 the notion of the streamers (or tentacles) being locomotive 

 organs, as some suppose, is easily disproved ; you have only 

 to snip them off, and you will observe the animal moving 

 with the same vigour and grace as before. Nay, if you cut 

 the animal in pieces, each section, provided it has a portion of 

 the ciliated bands, will for days swim about with unabated 

 energy. 



The reader, who is of course a lover of animals, and con- 

 sequently of a sympathetic compassionate nature, will pro- 

 bably feel some repulsion at the quiet way in which he is 

 recommended to snip off the Cydippe's tentacles, and will 

 energetically protest against the cruelty of physiologists who 

 employ vivisection as a means of experiment. It is very 

 true that a grave question has to be answered by the physio- 

 logist when, for the sake of science, he inflicts pain. I con- 



