No. 465.] STUDIES OF MYXINOIDS. 651 
etc., gave the same reaction for each fish; A, as a rule, reacting 
less energetically than B. But if the tentacle of either fish was 
touched, the reaction was much greater, each fish jerking the 
tentacle sharply aside. There seemed to be no difference in 
sensitiveness between the base and tbe tip of the tentacles, and 
the fish responded the most of all upon being touched in the 
angle formed by the tentacle with the head. B jerked away 
when touched directly over the nose, but A did not notice it, 
and neither gave more attention to being touched over the eye- 
ball than in any other part of the skin. 
In most cases when they react to the touch stimulus, they 
respond by curling the body tighter. 
I placed a third young hagfish in the dish with the two, and 
then tried placing various liquids on or near them by means of 
a pipette. First as a control I used ordinary sea water. 
When a stream of this was directed from a pipette against the 
tentacles and rim of the nose, they would draw the head a little 
to one side. 
Ordinary alcohol was dropped in the water, one drop after 
another in front of B, within a half inch of the tip of its nose. 
Some of the drops touched it in mixing with the water, others 
did not. The contact of alcohol did not produce observable 
reaction until after twelve drops had fallen, when it moved away. 
When fish C was treated the same way, eighteen drops fell 
before it moved ; the nineteenth touched it and it moved its head 
aside. B was touched again just as before, and again jerked its 
head away after the twelfth drop. The thirteenth drop placed 
in front of it at the usual distance, made it swim off toa dif- 
ferent part of the dish. In this new position, eleven drops 
were given it one by one. and it moved at the eleventh. C 
treated a second time, took twenty drops before giving any 
reaction. The twenty-second made it a little uneasy ; at twenty- 
three it moved its head slightly, and at twenty-four swam away. 
I followed it with another drop, and it went back to its old place. 
Three minutes later, it took five drops that all touched it in 
mixing. It quivered slightly at the third and fourth, but did 
not move aside until the fifth. 
One drop of hydrochloric acid placed in the water near the fish 
