supporting lamella

526 W. B. HAEDY.
inserted through the mouth, injected a drop of sea water containing
the one in suspension or the other in solution. Later,
however, I was more fortunate, and succeeded in obtaining
specimens with food in the enteric cavity. In one case the
prey was a Crustacean of some considerable size, so that it
produced a very obvious bulging of the animal. I did not
witness the capture and ingestion of the prey, but the specimen
was killed before the digestive fluid had produced any change
in the tissues. Fig. 21 is taken from this specimen. It also
contained the remains of a previous meal in the lower part of
the enteric space. Other specimens furnished other stages,
and in this way, as a result of an examination of a large number
of animals, I was enabled to obtain a series representing, to a
certain extent, the various stages of digestion.
Myriothela is carnivorous, and captures small Crustacea.
In one case the meal consisted of a half-digested egg, either
derived from the gonophores of the individual in question, or
from those of its neighbours. 1
Digestion is carried on at first in the lower portion of the
tentacle-bearing region—that is, in that region where the
gland-cells are most abundant, and results in a disintegration
of the prey, brought about by the agency of the digestive
fluid.
The gland-cells which first discharge their contents are
those in the immediate neighbourhood of the meal, but even
there all the cells are not affected at once, those which are
most loaded with granules probably being discharged first.
Some of the gland-cells in the proximal region of the blastostyles
and in the foot may be found undischarged until nearly
1
The huge yolk-laden eggs, when set free from the gonophores, are taken
by tentacle-like bodies, the "claspers," which hold them while development
proceeds and until the actinula larva is fully formed. In March and April, however,
the claspers are not always present, and the eggs formed then when ripe
are shed and sink to the bottom, where they become attached. I think that
further research will show that these early eggs have a more direct development
than those formed later, and pass at once to the form of the adult without
the intervention of the free-swimming actinula stage. It was one of these
free eggs which apparently had found lodgment in the enteric cavity.