EOHIN ODE RM AT A, 
295 
a young holothuria without losing their organs. The bodies of certain 
8 Pecies are lubricated by an acrid and corrosive liquid : thus 11. oceunia, 
described by Lesson, which is about forty inches in length, secretes at 
the surface of its body an irritating fluid, which produces an intolerable 
itching in the finger which touches it. Nor can the inhabitants of the 
South Sea Islands look at it without loathing. Fig. 119 represents the 
^ ychopus luteus of Brandt, who gives it as a distinctive character 
three rows of tentacular feet on the ventral surface. 
have spoken of the strange suicidal tendency of the sea-stars ; 
the Holothuria exhibits the same phenomenon, but, having no brittle 
e ovelop e like the asterias, it cannot break itself into bits in the pre- 
? nce of its disconcerted enemy; but kills itself in this manner, 
having some cause of grief and trouble— such, for instance, as the 
