450 
ZOOLOGY: a H. PARKER 
must contain a neuromuscular mechanism sufficient for the activity 
of that part of its body. 
The extended pubKcation will appear in the Journal of Experimental 
Zoology. 
THE BEHAVIOR OF SEA- ANEMONES 
By G. H. Parker 
ZOOLOGICAL LABORATORY OF THE MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY AT 
HARVARD COLLEGE 
Received by the Academy, June 15, 1916 
The older students of sea-anemones, such as Gosse and von Lenden- 
feld, beheved that these animals were endowed with mental traits not 
unlike those of man. Later workers, such as Loeb, Jordan, and others, 
regard these forms as finely adjusted machines devoid of psychic at- 
tributes. To discover something of the nervous nature of these animals 
two forms of their behavior were studied in detail, the appropriation 
of food, and general retraction. The work v/as carried out for the most 
part on Metridium and Sagartia. 
In the appropriation of food, the parts chiefly concerned are the five 
following: the tentacular gland cells whereby the tentacles are rendered 
adhesive for food, the tentacular muscles by which the tentacles are 
pointed toward the mouth, the tentacular cilia by which the food is 
delivered from the tip of the tentacle to the mouth, the transverse 
mesenteric muse es whose action opens the mouth, and the oral cilia 
(lips and oesophagus) whose reversal in the presence of food carries 
this material into the digestive cavity of the sea-anemone. Of these 
five parts the mucous cells, the tentacular ciHa, and the transverse 
mesenteric muscles are so uniform in their action that they need no 
further consideration. The oral cilia and the tentacular muscles on the 
other hand are much more open to variation and hence may serve to 
indicate to some extent the condition of the animal as a whole. 
The oral cilia after having reversed their effective stroke in the pres- 
ence of food a number of times, eventually cease to show this change, 
a condition supposed to be due to altered metabolism as a result of 
feeding. But this same cessation occurs when the oral membranes are 
cut from the animal and worked with separately. It is strictly local 
in its appearance and probably a pure fatigue effect. 
The feeding movements of the tentacles, though also modified by 
fatigue, have been supposed to show changes of a more significant kind. 
If the tentacles on one side of the animal are much exercised, those of 
