142 EFFICIENCY OF 



taken up his abode also. The Adamsia was prettily 

 spotted, though so young ; its position was as usual 

 the inner lip of the shell. This curious specimen, 

 interesting on more than one account, was dredged in 

 8 fathoms oif Whitenose in Weymouth Bay, a mile or 

 two from land, on the 12th of September, 1853. It 

 lived in captivity five days. 



My notion is further confirmed by what takes place 

 in the disease and death of the animal. When the 

 Crab deserts the shell or dies out, the Anemone for a 

 while expands as usual. But after a week or two, it 

 is evidently seen to be languishing; and soon its 

 adhering base begins to peel off and shrink away from 

 the shell. Now this process commences at the suture, 

 and as it goes on the suture divides, the lateral por- 

 tions separate more and more from each other, by 

 skrinking ; reversing exactly the steps by which the 

 annular habit was assumed, and which I have de- 

 scribed above. At length, the connexion of the animal 

 with the shell is wholly dissolved, and the former 

 collapses into a shapeless lump of flesh, from which 

 the integuments slough away in gelatinous shreds, 

 and the whole swiftly becomes a putrescent mass. 



Since the above was written, Mr. Thompson has 

 favoured me with an account of an Adamsia so aber- 

 rant in its habit as to require a modification of the 

 statement that a shell is always chosen. My friend 

 writes as follows : — "I have lately obtained a specimen 

 of Adamsia palliata, dredged in three fathoms' water, 

 on a frond of Fucus serratus. It is round and united, 

 but with a suture down one side." 



A curious evidence of the efficiency of the thread- 



