400 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE 



CHAPTER XIX 



SEA-ANEMONES: THEIR WEAPONS 



A VERY vast amount of the energy of animal life is 

 spent either in making war, or in resisting or evad- 

 ing it. Offence and defence are sciences which the 

 inferior creatures can in nowise neglect, since all are inter- 

 ested in one or other, and many in both; and various are 

 the arts and devices, the tricks and stratagems, the in- 

 stincts and faculties, employed in that earnest strife which 

 never knows a suspension of hostilities. All classes of 

 animals, invertebrate as well as vertebrate, are warriors 

 by profession: the Spider is as carnivorous as the Lion, 

 and more strategic; and the invisible Brachion is as ruth- 

 less and insatiable as either. 



An enumeration and description of the diverse weapons, 

 by means of which this truceless warfare is carried on, 

 would make a volume : nor would the subject be then ex- 

 hausted; for since it enters so largely into the very exist- 

 ence of animal life, the discoveries of advancing science 

 are ever bringing to light new forms and modifications, 

 strange and unexpected contrivances, all calculated to en- 

 hance our view of the inexhaustible resources of the Lord 

 God Omnipotent, "who is wonderful in counsel, and excel- 

 lent in working." 



I am going to bring under your notice this evening 

 some highly curious examples of animal weapons, of which 

 the very existence was until lately altogether unsuspected; 

 yet so profusely distributed that they are eminently char- 



