SEA-ANEMONES: THEIR WEAPONS 4ti7~ 



a minute Infusorial animalcule chanced to pass across, 

 close to the surface of the film; this would have been a 

 decisive test of the existence of a ciliary current; but not 

 the slightest deviation in the little atom's course could be 

 detected. 



"That the cinclides are the special orifices through which 

 those missile weapons the acontia are shot and recov- 

 ered, rests not merely on the probability that arises from 

 the co-existence of the two series of facts I have above 

 recorded,, but upon actual observation. In a rather large 

 S. dianihus, somewhat distended, placed in a glass vessel 

 between my eye and the sun, I saw, with great distinct- 

 ness, by the aid of a pocket lens, many acontia protruded 

 from the cinclides , and many more of the latter widely 

 open. The acontia, in some cases, did not so accurately 

 fill the orifice but that a line of bright light (or of dark- 

 ness, according as the sun was exactly opposite or not) 

 was seen partially bordering the issue of the thread, while 

 the thickened rim of the cinclis surrounded all. 



"The appearance of the orifices whence the acontia issued 

 was that of a tubercle or wart, and the same appearance 

 I have repeatedly marked in examples observed on the 

 stage of the microscope; namely, that of a perforate pim- 

 ple, or short columnar tube. This was clearly manifest 

 when the animal, slowly swaying to and fro, brought the 

 sides of the cinclis into partial perspective. 



"On another occasion I witnessed the actual issue of the 

 acontia from the cinclides. I was watching, under a low 

 power of the microscope, a specimen of a S. nivea, while, 

 by touching its body rudely, I provoked it to emit its 

 missile filaments. Presently they burst out with force, 

 not all at once, but some here and there, then more, and 



