Natural History of Britisli Zoophytes. 335 



it, and the danger of losing it being over, all the former caution and 

 gentleness is laid aside, and it is pulled to the polype's mouth with a 

 surprising violence." * Sometimes it happens that two polypes w^ill 

 seize upon the same worm, when a struggle for the prey ensues, in 

 which the stronger gains of course the victory ; or each polype begins 

 quietly to swallow his portion, and continues to gulp down his half 

 until the mouths of the pair near and come at length into actual con- 

 tact. The rest which now ensues appears to prove that they are 

 sensible of their untoward position, from which they are frequently 

 liberated by the opportune break of the worm, when each obtains his 

 share, but should the prey prove too tough, woe ! to the unready ! 

 The more resolute dilates the mouth to the requisite extent, and de- 

 liberately swallows his opponent, sometimes partially, so as, however, 

 to compel the discharge of the bait, while at other times the entire 

 polype is engulped ! But a polype is no fitting food to a polype, and 

 his capacity of endurance saves him from this living tomb, for after a 

 time, when the worm is sucked out of him, the sufferer is disgorged 

 with no other loss than his dinner, t This fact is the more remark- 

 able when it is contrasted with the fate which awaits the worms on 

 which they feed. No sooner are these laid hold upon than they evince 

 every symptom of painful suffering, but their violent contortions are 

 momentary and a certain death suddenly follows their capture. How 

 this effect is produced is mere matter of conjecture. Worms, in or- 

 dinary circumstances, are most tenacious of life even under severe 

 wounds, and hence one is inclined to suppose that there must be 

 something eminently poisonous in the Hydra's grasp, as it is impos- 

 sible to believe, with Baker, that this soft toothless creature can bite 

 and inject a venom into the wound it gives. " I have sometimes," 

 says Baker, <' forced a worm from a polype the instant it has been 

 bitten, (at the expence of breaking off the polype's arms,) and have 

 always observed it to die very soon afterwards, without one single 

 instance of recovery.":}; To the Entomostraca, however, its touch is 



* Hist, of the Polype, 65. Also Roget's Bridgw. Treat, ii. 76. 



t Trembley, Mem. 112. 



:|: Hist, of the Polype, 33 — comp. with 67-8 — " That insignificant and inac- 

 tive insect called the fresh water polypus, of all poisonous animals, seems to 

 possess the most powerful and active venom. Small water-worms, which the 

 polypus is only able to attack, are so tenacious of life, that they may be cut to 

 pieces without their seeming to receive any material injury, or to suffer much 

 pain from the incisions. But the poison of the polypus instantly extinguishes 

 every principle of life and motion. What is singular, the mouth or lips of the 

 polypus have no sooner touched this worm than it expires. No wound, how- 

 ever, is to be perceived in the dead animal. By experiments made with the 



