BARNACLES 225 



of solid matter, or the equally minute animalcules that 

 constitute the food of the Barnacle, are sifted out, and 

 detained by the fingers, which curling inward carry what- 

 ever is captured to the mouth. 



But see how greatly the perfection of the instrument is 

 enhanced by the projecting hairs with which every one of 

 the numerous joints is beset. These, standing out at right 

 angles (or nearly so) to the direction of the finger, meet 

 their fellows from the joints of the next finger, and cross- 

 ing their points, fill the interstices with an innumerable 

 series of finer meshes meshes of such delicacy that it is 

 next to impossible that any organized body enclosed in the 

 given area should escape. 



But there is more in them than merely this minute and 

 widespread ramification. They are, as we have seen, or- 

 gans of touch; so that the net has not only the mechanical 

 power of capture, common to an inanimate cast-net which 

 a human fisher uses, but is endowed with the most exqui- 

 site sensibility in every part. The slightest contact of an 

 animalcule in the enclosed water with one of those thousands 

 of sensitive hairs, communicates instantly an impression to 

 the sensorium, and a consciousness of the fact to the Bar- 

 nacle; who is thus, without doubt, able with the quick- 

 ness of thought to close the fingers together at that part, 

 and thus secure the victim. 



To make use of the prey thus secured, the Barnacle is 

 furnished with a mouth, which can be protruded into a 

 sort of wart, and is provided with a distinct lip bearing 

 minute palpi, and three pairs of jaws, of which the two 

 outer are horny and toothed, while the innermost is soft 

 and fleshy. 



Fixed and immovable as the Barnacles are in their 



