ACAI,EPH.E— THE MEDUSADJ!. 



The ijaturalists of antiquity were not ignorant of the 

 fact, tliongh in error respecting its attendant conflitions. 

 Tiiey believed that the star-fish waited until the oyster 

 or the mussel opened its valves to seize its prey, wliieh 

 it did, by introducing first one and flien its other four 

 feet or fingers into the opening, until it reached and 

 devoured tlie unfortunate inhabitant. But tlie researches 

 of modern inquirers have corrected our ideas upon this 

 point. To secure its savoury victim, it seems that the 

 etar-fish commences operations by bringing its central 

 mouth to the closed edges of the bivalve ; and this 

 efiVcted, it injects from that raouth a few drops of an 

 acrid or poisonous liquid into the interior of the oyster 

 shell, which compels it to open its valves. An entrance 

 once eflected, it soon completes the destruction of 

 its pre)'. 



It is true, however, that Professor Rymer Jones 

 describes the operation in a dill'erent manner. The 

 oyster, he says, is firmly grasped by the rays of 

 its foe, and held under its mouth by the aid of its 

 suckers. The Asterias then inverts its stomach, and 

 envelops the bivalve in its interior cavity, distilling, 

 meanwhile, a poisonous liquid. The victim compulsorily 

 opens its shell, and is quickly devoured. 



The Asterias, we may adil, devours dead flesh or 

 garbage of every kind, and is one of the most active of 

 nature's scavengers, being incessantly engaged in the 

 great work of cleansing the shore to prevent the creation 

 of contagious and miasmatic vapours. 



Zoologists differ as to the mode in which it dis- 

 charges its res])iratory functions. The general opinion 

 seems to be that the principal portion of the task 

 devolves upon the sub-cutaneous branchiije, which, in 

 each ray, constitute two double series of bladders. 

 Its circulatory organization is imperfectly known. 



The vascular apparatus is, however, sufGoiently 

 developed, and its centre appears to be an elongated 

 canal witli muscular walls, which naturalists consider 

 to be the heart. A little ring encircling the oesophagus, 

 and throwing off a number of delicate white fibres, 

 which extend into the furrowed arms, forms the whole 

 of its nervous system. Among its organs of sense 

 we find that of touch in the terdacula amhulacraira, or 

 the suckers wliich garnish its rays, as well as in those 

 which are scattered over the dorsal surfiice of the disc. 

 Its eyes, if it have any, which Ryraer Jones does not 

 admit, and which, at all events, must be of a singularly 

 imperfect character, are the bright red points situated 

 at the extremity of the arms, and on the inferior surface. 

 Any defectiveness in the visual organs is, however, more 

 tlian compensated by the extreme delicacy of touch 

 with which the Asterias is gifted. 



The star-fishes have distinct sexual differences. 

 The female lays a number of round reddish eggs, 

 which produce little vermiform creatures, covered with 

 fine vibratile cilia, and swimming about incessantly, like 

 the infusoria. Each of these is afterwards developed 

 into a Bipinnaria, a kind of polype, with one extreujily 

 of the body terminating in arms, and the other in a 

 tail, furriislied with two fins. To the extremity pro- 

 vided with arms is attached a young asterias, which in 

 due time the Bijjinnaria throws oft', giving up at the 

 same time its stomach and intestines, which the asterias 



converts to its own use. This act of sublime renun- 

 ciation, however, does not kill the Bipinnaria, which, 

 though retaining only a portion of itself, manages 

 to live for several days after the sacrifice has been 

 peiformed. 



We have not yet completed our list of wonders con- 

 nected with the economy of the star-fish. This 

 animal, as a recent writer observes, exhibits in the 

 highest degree the vital phenomena of dismemberment 

 and restoration ; that is to say, it possesses the remark- 

 able faculty of reconstructing any organ of which it 

 may accidentally be deprived. If it loses a ray it 

 sufl'ers no disquietude ; it can easily replace the missing 

 member. Profes-or Rymer Jones mentions a curious 

 instance. He had picked up a single ray of an asterias ; 

 at the end of five days it developed four little rays and 

 a mouth ; wdien a month had elapsed the old ray was 

 completely destroyed, and the apparently useless frag- 

 ment had created a new asterias, quite perfect, with 

 four little symmetrical branches. 



But another and a stranger circumstance remains 

 to be told. The asterias, it is said, commits suicide, 

 when menaced by any overwhelming danger. Extremes 

 meet. It is only at the highest and lowest degrees of 

 the grand scale of animal life, that we meet with 

 creatures possessing the power of voluntarily terminat- 

 ing their existence. It should be noted, however, that 

 it is only fouml in its fullest extent in two genera of 

 asterias — the Ophrocoma and the LuicUa. 



The following narrative by Professor Forbes of 

 what he observed take place in an attempt wliich he, 

 on one occasion, made to capture a specimen of the 

 Luidia fra/jillissiina, an inhabitant of our British seas, 

 will interest the reader : — ■ 



"The fii'st time," he says, "that I caught one of 

 these creatures, I succeeded in placing it in its entirety 

 in my boat. Not having seen one before, and being 

 ignorant of its suicidal powers, I spread it out on a 

 rowing bench, the better to admire its form and colours. 

 On attempting to remove it for preservation, I 

 found it, to ray horror and disappointment, only an 

 assemblage of detached members. Jly conservative 

 endeavours were all neutralized by its destructive 

 exertions; and the animal is now badly represented 

 in my cabinet by a discless arm and an armless disc. 

 Next time I went to dredge, at the same spot, I 

 determined I would not again be cheated out of my 

 specimen ; I carried with me a bucket of fresh water, 

 for wliich the star-fishes evince a great antipathy. As 

 I hoped, a Luidia soon came up in the dredge, a most 

 gorgeous specimen. As the animal does not generally 

 break up until it is raised to the surface of the sea, 

 I carefully and anxiously plunged my bucket to a level 

 with the dredge's mouth, and softly introduced the 

 Luidia into the fiesh water. AVhether the cold was 

 too much for it, or the sight of the bucket was too 

 terrific, I do not know; but in a moment it began 

 to dissolve its corporation, and I saw its limbs escaping 

 through every mesh of the dredge. In my despair I 

 seized the largest pieces, and brought up the extremity 

 of an arm witli its terminal eye, the spinous eyeliii of 

 which opened and closed with sometliing like a wink 

 of derision." 



