THE MEDUSA'S HEAD. 555 



The reader will not fail to observe that herein the creature acts in precisely the opposite 

 mode to that which is adopted by many beings which have already been described. In those 

 marine animals of which the acorn-barnacle is a good example, the young enjoys freedom 

 throughout its earlier stages, is furnished with certain organs which it afterwards loses, and 

 does not settle down to one spot until it has attained adult age. In the case of the Comatula, 

 the contrast between the two states of life is very strongly marked, the creature being of a 

 more nomad nature than the rest of its kin, and in swimming, presenting a curious resem- 

 blance to the Medusa, the arms contracting and expanding in a manner that strongly reminds 

 the observer of the pulsating disc of the acaleph. * 



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