supporting lamella

582 W. B. HARDY.
from the results of digestion in the enteric cavity. The fate
of sodium sulphindigotate when introduced into the enteric
cavity is interesting in this connection, for though a considerable
portion of that pigment is rapidly decolourised, some may
be found after a short period in the vacuolate cells associated
with the nutritive spheres in the various stages of their formation
in such a way that these bodies are tinged with blue in
irregular patches. We may conclude, therefore, that the substances
resulting from the solution of the tissue of the prey
are mainly absorbed by the vacuolate cells, while at the same
time ingestion of disintegrated fragments, possibly of a resistent
nature, takes place to a limited extent, and is carried
on by the apical cells of the villi in the middle region of the
body. And the distribution of the products of digestion to
the more remote portions of the endoderm is effected by the
agency of the general somatic fluid.
But, as I said before, there are reasons for believing that
the somatic fluid is more than a vehicle for the distribution of
the immediate results of digestion. Let us now turn to a
consideration of those reasons.
In the blastostyles the extensive accumulation of nutritive
spheres is in obvious relation to the active and important processes
carried on in those structures. But the nutritive
spheres are stored in equal abundance in the endoderm of the
foot, where, during the summer and autumn, there appears to
be no great call for this enormous reserve of nutritive material.
On the other hand, throughout the whole tentacular
region and usually in the endoderm of the tentacles themselves
no abundant reserve of food-stuff is present. It is, as I
pointed out above, highly doubtful whether the peculiar bodies
sometimes found in the endoderm of the tentacles are of the
nature of simple reserve nutriment. On the other hand, it is
equally certain that the actively motile and sensitive tissues
of the tentacular and oral regions are not supplied directly
and solely from the immediate products of digestion. We are,
therefore, compelled to conclude that the nutritive material
stored in one region of the body may be conveyed as occasion