46 



as in the ,,swabs" used at sea, separated from each other, and only kept together at the 

 part where the lead is attached. When such a swab is dragged slowly along the bottom, 

 the loose strands spread themselves out like a fan over a considerable space, and sweep 

 the bottom. If any part of the swab comes in contact with a creeping Brisinga, the latter 

 will immediately become attached to it by the action of the pedicellaries, and entangled in 

 the strands with its spiny arms, and can thus simply be drawn up, together with the swab, 

 to the surface of the water. There is very seldom any risk that the animal should fall off. 

 More frequently it will be found so well attached, that the greatest difficulty will be experi- 

 enced in extricating the spiny arms uninjured from the threads. This very simple instru- 

 ment was, as is well known, first systematically employed in the Porcupine's expedition under 

 the name of ,,hempen tangles"; and has since been very extensively used in examining the 

 bottom of the ocean. 



2. The Vegetative Functions. 



What I have to state of these functions is based less on direct observations of the 

 living animal, than on the conclusions to which I have come by a more minute examination 

 of the structure and relation of the organs herein concerned. Although there can generally 

 here be no question of any thing ^Ise than what relates to the whole group of animals to 

 which the Brisinga belongs, I feel bound for the sake of completeness to touch briefly on 

 this part of the natural history of the Brisinga, especially as my conception of it is in 

 several points rather different from that usually adopted. 



A. Nutrition. 



We have under this head briefly to notice: The reception of food, digestion, circu- 

 lation of the blood, respiration and secretion, all which functions must on the whole be 

 supposed to proceed exactly in the same manner as in all other star-fishes. As however there 

 is much that in connexion with this subject is still very obscure; and as it is highly neces- 

 sary to subject many points to renewed investigation, I think that it will not be out of place 

 to develop here more particularly the views which I have been led to adopt by more minute 

 examination of the present form. 



a. Reception of fo o d. 



The food on which the Brisinga lives seems to consist of all sorts of smaller and 

 larger deep-sea animals, annelides, crustaceans, rhizopodes &c. On the whole it does not 



