136 THE EUCRATEA. 



It is a short thick tube, and presently leads into an 

 oval second stomach, closely resembling the former, 

 but a little smaller. Both have thick walls, and their 

 internal surface is lined with cilia, by whose action 

 the contents are formed into lengthened pellets, and 

 continually made to revolve on their long axes. From 

 the upper extremity of the second stomach proceeds 

 a slender but expansile tube of great length, which 

 may be called the rectum, and which proceeds upwards 

 parallel with and behind the gullet, to its terminal 

 aperture, on the posterior side of the head, a little 

 below the tentacular ring. 



The first and second stomachs, and the intestines 

 connected with them, retain their position perma- 

 nently ; at least so far as any change might be pro- 

 duced by retractation ; for the lower extremity of the 

 first stomach is bound to a slender thread, which 

 passes up from the preceding polype, through a fora- 

 men in the bottom of the cell. This thread appears 

 to merge into the integument of the stomach ; and at 

 its upper extremity, it collects again into a thread, 

 which goes up through the back of the cell into the 

 tubular foot of the next, aud through the foramen at 

 its bottom to be tied to the extremity of the stomach 

 of the succeeding polype, in like manner. This 

 thread is the link of vital connection, and, as far as I 

 can see, the only one, between the individual polypes, 

 uniting them in a corporate life. When a new branch 

 is to be formed, another thread goes off from the 

 lower extremity of the stomach, to the front margin 

 of the cell, where as I have described above, the new 

 branch pullulates, and enters the tube, as in the other 



