Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/301

246 the animals I might witness the development of the eggs and young, especially after what Sir John Dalyell and others have observed in the Holothuriæ. But I found that the self-divided animals very soon became offensive and evidently putrescent, an infallible evidence that death had ensued; and that not only was this the case with the posterior portions separated from the main body, but with the latter also, or that to which the head was attached. It is possible that the whole process was caused by morbid muscular contraction, arising from the stimulus of unnatural circumstances. Mr. Kingsley suggests to me that "the animal breaks itself up from the irritation of light," a suggestion highly probable; and that we "must keep it in the shade if we obtain it again."

One which I put into fresh water, in order to kill it for preservation, immediately began to contract, and continued the process (not rapidly) to rigidity. It then lengthened again, distended the posterior extremity, and then divided by constriction near the middle, protruding the intestine, but no ovigerous threads. The body, after lying a while, discharged a stain, which diffused itself to some distance through the water, and precipitated a subtle sediment of a brilliant gamboge hue, which increased to saffron. The whole water in the saucer was, besides, slightly tinged with pink. The specimen, on being immersed in a preservative fluid—a solution of acetate of alumina and sulphate of potash,—tinged the lower parts of it with a rich transparent crimson, a little inclined to purple, the hue of which was deepest near the bottom.

The vermiform figure of this animal, its swollen