4:28 EVENINGS AT THE MIOEOSCOPE. 



swiftly, and sometimes more deliberately. Nothing 

 that I have seen would lead me to conclude that the 

 wall of the cnida is ciliated. 



" I consider, then, that this fluid, holding organic 

 corpuscles in suspension, is endowed with a high 

 degree of expansibility ; that, in the state of repose, 

 it is in a condition of compression, by the inversion of 

 the ecthorcBUTTi y and that, on the excitement of a suit- 

 able stimulus, it forcibly exerts its expansile power, 

 distending and, consequently, projecting, the tubular 

 cothorcBum — the only part of the wall that will yield 

 without actual rupture." 



It has been proved that the execution of these 

 weapons is as effectual as their mechanism is elaborate. 

 The wire shot with such force penetrates to its base 

 the tissiies of the living animals which the Anemone 

 attacks, when its barbs preclude the withdrawal of the 

 dart. But the entrance of bodies so excessively slen- 

 der would of itself inflict little injury ; there is evi- 

 dently the infusion at the same time of a highly subtile 

 poison into the wound ; some venomous fluid escaping 

 with the discharge of the ecthorcBum, which has the 

 power, at least when augmented by the simultaneous 

 intromission of scores, or hundreds, of the weapons, of 

 suddenly arresting animal vigour and speedily de- 

 stroying life, even in creatures — fishes for example — far 

 higher than the zoophyte in the scale of organization. 

 I have seen a little fish in perfect health come in 

 accidental contact with one of the acontia of an irritat- 

 ed Sagartia, when all the evidences of distress and 

 agony were instantly manifested ; the little creature 

 darted wildly to and fro, turned over, sank upon the 

 bottom, struggled, flurried, and was dead. 



