41 



V. 



The vital functions, 



(Physiology). 



I. The animal functions. 



It is of course very difficult to acquire any complete idea of these vital functions 

 in the Brisinga; because the animal, by being brought up from the enormous depth at 

 which it lives, is evidently placed in very abnormal exterior circumstances which must neces- 

 sarily have a highly obstructive influence on such functions. But as I have been able to 

 preserve specimens, or rather those parts of which the specimens consist, alive some time 

 after capture, I have still succeeded in making a few observations on this subject which 

 may not perhaps be without interest. 



A. Movement. 



The principal acting parts during the locomotion of the animal are certainly, as in 

 other star-fishes, the numerous water-feet situated along the ventral furrows, by help of 

 which the animal creeps slowly along the bottom in different directions. I have not how- 

 ever been able directly to observe the animal's true locomotion; and that for the very 

 natural reason, that in all the specimens, as has been said, the arms have been at the time 

 of capture more or less completely detached from the disc. 



However in the arms thus separated one may see, as in other star-fishes, that the 

 feet move in different manners, now contracting now extending themselves and turning in 

 various directions, partly also attaching themselves by their suction-discs to the objects with 

 which they come in contact. This changing play of the water-feet seems however in the 

 Brisinga to be far from taking place with that liveliness and intensity that we have occasion 

 to observe in other star-fishes, for instance in the genus Asterias ; while we must not omit to 

 allow for the abnormal circumstances in which the captured specimens of the Brisinga will 

 always find themselves. As regards the proper movement of the water-feet, it is effected 



6 



