1912) Ritter: The Marine Biological Station of San Diego 205 
than that in a general yay it is so adapted; that is, that it is 
sufficiently adapted to enable the individual animals to live and 
maintain their specific identity in a considerable range of en- 
vironmental conditions. ”’ 
(f) Animal Behavior 
This term has come to have a very definite meaning in recent 
biology and as such to stand for one of the most important 
subjects of investigation. It has been dealt with by Dr. Torrey 
in several studies (Torrey, 1904b, 1905b, and 1906a), and by 
Dr. H. S. Jennings (1907). 
Torrey’s work on Corymorpha (1905b) brought out, among 
other things, the interesting result that the pronounced geotropic 
movements of the animal appear to depend not on the muscles 
of the body, although these are well developed, but on the axial 
cells which are not at all muscular. The action of these cells is, 
it seems, due to their changing turgidity. If this interpretation 
be right, the author says, ‘‘Corymorpha stands alone among the 
metazoa in possessing a tropic mechanism distinct from the body 
musculature.’’ Such a conclusion naturally leads to refleetion 
on the similarity of these movements of the animal to the nega- 
tive geotropism of plant seedlings. ‘‘T know of no animal,’’ 
Torrey says, ‘‘which more closely approximates the plant in 
structure and tropic response. If the behavior of the one be 
expheable on the basis of direct reactions to stimuli, of the reflex 
type, I do not see how the behavior of the other can be excluded 
from a similar interpretation. ’’ 
Study of the tentacular and ciliary movements in the anemone 
Sagartia (1904b) under various chemical and mechanical stimn- 
lations extended our knowledge of these phenomena in severa! 
directions. For instance the question that has been raised as to 
whether reversal in direction of ciliary action could be induced 
by mechanical as it can by chemical stimulation was definitely 
answered in the affirmative. Special emphasis was laid on the 
fact that polyps act more or less definitely and vigorously in 
various food-taking operations, depending on how hungry they 
are. 
In all of Jenning’s long series of studies on animal behavior 
