SELF-ABOLITION. 239 



merely straight slits. This bundle of lancets can be 

 protruded at ■will to a considerable length, or -with- 

 drawn into the fleshy wart so as to be quite concealed, 

 as in a sheath. Their direction is backward, and their 

 main use is doubtless that of catching against the 

 internal walls of the tube, and pushing the animal 

 outwards. At the same time it is not improbable 

 that their cutting edges serve to cut and dress the 

 fragments of sand of which the tube is composed; and 

 that the spongy cushions behind the bundles help to 

 bring the work to that state of polished smoothness, 

 which is needful to guard the soft and tender body of 

 the Annelide from annoyance. 



SUICIDE. 



Some time ago a humorous periodical favoured the 

 public with a portrait of " a Prime Minister" a-boUsh- 

 ing of his self." The marine naturalist is aware that 

 the process is occasionally exhibited by other animals 

 also ; the faculty may perhaps be the link, which in 

 a quinary arrangement connects the Prime Ministers 

 with the Echinoderms. Certainly the latter possess 

 this useful faculty in extraordinary perfection, as 

 witness the triumphant way in which Luidia fragi- 

 lissima laughed at Professor Forbes.* A swell-gen- 

 tleman in Eegent Quadrant could not have "done" a 

 police officer in more admirable style. 



The Brittie-stars fOphiocomaJ, as their name im- 

 ports, are considered peculiarly prone to this suicidal 

 work ; but, for my own experience, though I have 

 dredged a tolerable quantity (I say " quantity" be- 



Brit. Staifishes, p. 138. 



