38 Life and Immortality. 
presence in the skin of the tentacles and body of what 
are called lasso-cells, or nettling-organs, which are minute, 
transparent cells, so small that two hundred of the largest 
would occupy but the distance of an inch, each ’being armed 
with a long barbed thread coiled up within its walls. This 
delicate thread, which is often from twenty to forty times the 
length of the cell, lies bathed in a poisonous fluid, and only 
waits for the cell-walls to burst, which they do when the 
Hydra touches an animal swimming near it, when thousands 
of these little barbed cords dart into the victim, quickly 
paralyzing it and rendering it an easy prey to its captor. 
All Ccelenterates, such as jelly-fishes and coral polyps, pos- 
sess these nettling-organs. 
Thus we see where the Hydra’s strength lies. He has no 
necd to struggle, for his victim, penetrated by a multitude of 
darts, and made powerless by the poison instilled, becomes 
as manageable as an equal bulk of inert matter. It behooves 
the little creature to take things quietly, for a cell once burst 
cannot be used again, and he is therefore compelled to wait 
until a new one is grown to take the place of the one that 
has become exhausted. So he patiently bides his time till 
his victim is half-conquered, when he draws him gently into 
his body. He lives and catches his food, as must be appar- 
ent, without the necessity of moving very far from the place 
where he had his birth. 
All the summer through the Hydra puts out buds from its 
side, which, when their tentacles have grown, drop from the 
parent-body, and settle down in life for themselves. But 
when winter comes, and before all life has become extinct, an 
egg appears near the base of the tubes of those that are living, 
and these eggs lie dormant till the next spring, when they 
are hatched, and a new generation of Hydras is produced. 
Budding, which is but a process of natural self-division, is 
carried on to a large extent, more individuals being pro- 
duced in this way than from eggs. These buds are at first 
a simple bulging out of the body-walls, the bud enveloping 
