248 NATURE — WHAT ? 



that hang down freely like so many walking-sticks 

 into the cavity of the body from the oral orifice, to 

 the number of ten at least, the nature and use of 

 which organs I am not aware of. 



Wishing to see the course of the food into the 

 stomach, I mingled indigo and carmine with the 

 water ; but though I saw the particles of pigment 

 continually taken in (not, as I had expected, by the 

 oral aperture but by the anal), I could not trace 

 them beyond the immediate vicinity of the orifice ; 

 nor could I discern the least discoloration of the 

 stomach or intestines by it. Indeed I could not 

 detect any distinct canal or tube leading from either 

 aperture to the stomach. The gelatinous coat, how- 

 ever, which invests the whole animal, has apparently 

 the power of imbibing water; for on my removing it 

 into clean water after two or three hours' immersion 

 in the coloured, the whole of the investing coat was 

 tinged with faint purple, wdiich slowly disappeared. 

 The admixture of pigment was probably injurious to 

 its health, for both circulation and respiration were 

 suspended, and were resumed only after some half- 

 hour's immersion in the pure water. 



When I spoke just now of these wonderful mechan- 

 isms and functions as " Nature's operations," I used 

 the phrase in playfulness rather than in seriousness. 

 For who indeed is Nature, and what are her attri- 

 butes ? Is not the term one in which we take refuge 

 from the necessity of acknowledging the God of 

 glory ? " It has become customary," says the greatest 

 of modern zoologists, to personify Nature, and to 

 employ the name for that of its Author, out of re- 



