224 
z. helianthoida. 
ACTINIiE. 
ed in any direction and greatly lengthened, they are capable of being- 
applied to every point, and adhere by suction with considerable tena- 
city. * The food is retained in the stomach for ten or twelve hours, 
when the undigested remains are regurgitated, enveloped in a glairy 
fluid, not unlike the white of an egg. The size of the prey is fre- 
quently in unseemly disproportion to the preyer, being often 
equal in bulk to itself. I had once brought me a specimen of Act. 
gemmacea, that might have been originally two inches in diameter, 
and that had somehow contrived to swallow a valve of Pecten maxi- 
mus of the size of an ordinary saucer. The shell, fixed within the 
stomach, was so placed as to divide it completely into two halves, so 
that the body, stretched tensely over, had become thin and flattened 
like a pancake. All communication between the inferior portion of 
the stomach and the mouth was of course prevented, yet instead of 
emaciating and dying of a hytrophy, the animal had availed itself 
of what undoubtedly had been a very untoward accident, to increase 
its enjoyments and its chances of double fare. A new mouth, fur- 
nished with two rows of numerous tentacula, was opened up on 
what had been the base, and led to the under stomach -the indivi- 
dual had indeed become a sort of Siamese twin, but with greater in- 
timacy and extent in its unions ! 
The existence of nerves in the structure of the Actiniae is still 
doubtful. Spix tells us, that he detected near the base and centre of 
the body some small nodules or ganglions placed in pairs, from which 
filaments emanate towards the circumference, constituting, as he be- 
lieves, their nervous system. Blainville asserts, however, that in 
numerous dissections made with every possible care, he could see 
nothing like what Spix has described and figured ; and the only part 
that he can regard as nervous, is a sort of grey pulpy cord in the 
margin of the labial rim. Delle Chiaje, and Mr Teale agree with 
Blainville.J Be the fact as it may, we know that every part of the 
* According to Gaertner the animal fixes the tentacula by throwing out of their 
whole surface “ a number of extremely minute suckers, which, sticking fast to 
the small protuberances of the skin, produce the sensation of a roughness, which 
is so far from being painful, that it even cannot be called disagreeable.” Phil. 
Trans, v. 52. p. 76 No such structure can be discovered. 
•j* “ Fauces liaec animalia, subtus sacci instar penitus clausa, superne habent 
pro libitu tam patulas, ut mytulos satis magnos alias ve conchas ingurgitent, e 
quibus, modo nos fugiente, pisces extrahere, et evacuatas testas per eandem 
aperturam, ejicere rursus valent. Quae testae, si majores sint, et ££gre per fauces 
transiturae essent, Priapus non solum fauces late expandit, sed easdem, ut so- 
lemus tibialia, quasi invertit, quo spatium brevius et apertura fit latior.” Bas- 
teri Opusc. Subsec. i. lib- iii. 122. 
$ But Dr Grant says — “ The nervous system has been long known in the 
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