UnaP. XVII. ABSORPTION BY THE QUADRIFIDS. 411 
to the larva: above referred to, that “usually in less 
“than two days after a large one was captured the fluid 
“contents of the bladders began to assume a cloudy 
“or muddy appearance, and often became so dense 
“that the outline of the animal was lost to view.” 
This statement raises the suspicion that the bladders 
secrete some ferment hastening the process of decay. 
There is no inherent improbability in this supposition, 
considering that meat soaked for ten minutes in water 
mingled with the milky juice of the papaw becomes 
quite tender and soon passes, as Browne remarks in 
his ‘Natural History of Jamaica,’ into a state of 
putridity. 
Whether or not the decay of the imprisoned animals 
is in any way hastened, it is certain that matter is 
absorbed from them by the quadrifid and bifid pro- 
cesses. The extremely delicate nature of the mem- 
brane of which these processes are formed, and the 
large surface which they expose, owing to their number 
crowded over the whole interior of the bladder, are 
circumstances all favouring the process of absorption. 
Many perfectly clean bladders which had never caught 
any prey were opened, and nothing could be distin- 
guished with a No. 8 object-glass of Hartnack within 
the delicate, structureless protoplasmic lining of the 
arms, excepting in each a single yellowish particle or 
modified nucleus. Sometimes two or even three such 
particles were present ; but in this case traces of decay- 
ing matter could generally be detected. On the other 
hand, in bladders containing either one large or several 
small decayed animals, the processes presented a widely 
different appearance. Six such bladders were care- 
fully examined; one contained an elongated, coiled- 
up larva; another a single large entomostracan crusta- 
zean, and the others from two to five smaller ones, all 
