the Hebrew discounter may be disposed to prefer his interest to yours, and to act on the preference, the rapacity and hardness of the Christian accommodator, surpasses that of the Two Tribes, as well as that of the undiscovered Ten Tribes. The Jew has his conscience; but the Christian has had his, and flung it to the dogs-who turn away from it in disgust."

While this exposition has been made, the Naïs, which had escaped from the Jew (if Jew he be) has unhappily fallen into the clutches of a Christian rival; the impetus of fear drove him from one into the grasp of the other. There is no longer hope. What is this? The Jew also has now seized the wriggling tail of this unfortunate individual, whose head is already in what schoolboys call "chancery." It is pull devil pull baker, now. Both tug steadily-and both begin to swallow! Unless the body should split in two, and the rivals be pacified by each having a half, it is probable there will be a pretty quarrel presently. Let us watch it. Each gulps down his own end, with steady systematic energy and now there is scarcely a bit of the victim unswallowed; the two rapacious mouths get closer and closer to each other, as the bridge of worm between them gets smaller. What will come of it? which of them will refund? Refund is a word odious in the ear of all the tribe; 'tis not to be alluded to. Neither of these amiable persons seems in the least disposed that way; and-can it be possible?our Christian friend seems opening his maw still wider, while the Caucasian appears to be of Shylock's way of thinking when they offer to spare his life, but confiscate his goods:

"Then take my life and all; oh! spare not

that.

You take my house when you do take the prop

That doth sustain my house. You take my life

When you do take the means whereby I live."

Rather than disgorge, he suffers himself to be dragged into his rival's maw. 'Tis a pretty sight, this of the

us.

half-swallowed gentleman resolutely holding on to his bit of worm, though somewhat circumscribed in his movements. The denouement interests One bill-discounter discounting another is too exhilarating a spectacle to be disregarded. Unfortunately we have forgotten the nature of the beast. One jackal will not eat another. One polype cannot digest another. Honour among thieves! If those who prey on the rest of mankind were to begin preying on each other, social arrangements would be disturbed. Alas! yes; and thus it

is that the Jew, being of a meeker temper, allows the worm to be sucked out of him, and is then himself allowed to make an honourable retreat, empty, but with a whole skin. My friend points in triumph to this proof of his generalisation, and almost persuades me to forswear pork.

The reader now begins to see that the Polypes may be more interesting than their appearance promised. A closer acquaintance with them will raise his regard. In a scientific point of view, the mere fact that the Hydra is one of the simplest of animals, and indeed is the very simplest of those large enough to admit of experiment, gives it a peculiar value. Let us notice here a single point. What is called the stomach of the Hydra is a mere cavity in its substance, not an organ, not even a distinct bag. It is nothing more nor less than a folding-in of the outer skin, as when the finger of a glove is inverted,-and this must be understood more literally than is the case with the higher animals, in whom also the mucous membrane which lines the whole extent of the digestive cavity, from the mouth downwards, is said to be a folding-in of the external envelope--a position which the transcendental anatomist histologist must impugn, for the may lawfully assume, but which the mucous membrane is as distinct from the skin as connective tissue is from bone. But in the Hydra no such difference between external and internal exists. There are microscopists who deny this; but I have convinced myself of it by very careful examination; and the proof is seen in Trembley's celebrated experiment,*

wherein the Polype was turned inside out-the skin becoming the stomach, and the stomach the skin-yet digestion went on as well as before. Now it requires very little reflection to assure us that no animal having a mucous membrane lining its digestive cavity, could replace that membrane by its external envelope; if, therefore, the Polype shows such indifference to being turned inside out, it must be because there is, in truth, little difference between the inside and the outside-in other words, it has no special membrane lining the digestive cavity.

What then? asks the reader, innocent of anatomy. Why then, a very interesting question arises. We saw the Polype swallow a worm, and we said the worm would be digested; but now we find that it is indifferent whether the worm be inside a cavity supposed to be specially allotted to digestion, or a cavity formed out of the external skin. We know that Digestion in the scientific meaning of the word-is effected by the agency of gastric and intestinal juices, secreted from peculiar glands formed in the mucous membrane, these juices acting chemically on the food; and we are naturally led to inquire how it is the Polype can have the juices if it have not the glands; how it can have the glands if it have not the mucous membrane, or anything analogous to it; and how it can digest if it have no chemical means of digesting? This is only another way of putting the paradoxical question, Can Polypes digest at all?" On a former occasion an attempt was made in these pages to show that even the more highly organised Sea-Anemones were incapable of digesting, in the proper sense of the word; and of course those arguments apply with more force to the Hydra. I will, however, briefly state what the true answer to this question seems to demand. If by Digestion we understand any and every mode of rendering food fit for assimilation, we must of course admit that the Hydra digests, no less than an alderman; but to give

* See Magazine for June 1857.

the word this latitude of meaning is to destroy all scientific nomenclature,+ and to confound Digestion-which is the special function of an organic apparatus-with Cooking, Carving, Mastication, and all other modes of preparing food for assimilation. On the other hand, if we limit the term Digestion to express that complex of chemical and mechanical actions which takes place in the alimentary canal, it is clear that the Hydra, which has no alimentary canal, and no secreting organs, cannot be said to digest. If in its stomach it effects any chemical change whatever on the food it swallows, the means by which it does so must be unlike all those at present recognised. In fact, so simple is the organisation of the Polype, that it is in vain to seek there for those organs which we meet in the higher animals. It has no organs of secretion; no organs of circulation; no organs of respiration; in fact, it has scarcely any differentiation of its substance into separate tissues, or even an approach to it. Leydig, indeed, has discovered cells which he calls muscle-cells. But these-granting them to be musclecells-exist only in one species; at least I have never been able to detect them in Hydra fusca, although they are readily found in Hydra viridis; the mass of the body seems to be composed of a gelatinous contractile substance, which has a tendency to break up into Amoeba-like portions.

And what is an Amoeba ? some will ask. One of the pond-inhabiting curiosities which may profitably employ your microscope, and which, therefore, may claim a few words of digression in this place. The Amoeba (formerly called Proteus) is certainly the simplest of all organic beings; for, according to the majority of writers, it is nothing but a microscopic bit of gelatinous substance, without any differentiation of parts: it not only has no "organs," but no tissues out of which an organ could be formed; and although I am disposed to agree with Auerbach in believing the Amoeba to be a single

celled animal (the cell-wall and nucleus being discernible under proper treatment), yet even this amount of organisation is assuredly small enough. Imagine an animal which has independent existence, which moves, feeds, and propagates, and is nevertheless only a single microscopic cell, and you will admit that a less elaborate mechanism for the performance of vital actions cannot be conceived. How can it move? How does it feed? How can it propagate? These are questions which you may perhaps answer for yourself after a patient and amused investigation. But first let us see how the animalcule is to be obtained.

The Amoeba is found among the debris of organic matter in the mud bottom of almost any pond. Very true; you imagine then that nothing can be simpler than the process of securing one? If ever you have sought for needles in a haystack, it is probable that you considered the process somewhat more laborious than the result could justify. In vain you are assured that there are hundreds of needles; to find them, can only be a lucky accident. Very much the same process is that of hunting for a microscopic animalcule in the mud of a pond; and to save you from this baffling search, here is a simple method of making these Amoebae in any quantity. Place a small bit of meat-no matter what, provided it has not been cooked-into a tumbler three parts full of water; allow this to stand for two or three weeks in the sunlight. Green vegetation will quickly appear. At the end of the second or third week, if you dip your "finder" (a glass tube, sold at all microscope establishments) into the decomposed sediment, and place the drop on a glass-slide under the microscope, you will soon discover one or more of these interesting animals. How is one to be recognised? By its peculiarity of movement. An irregular mass, having no shape at all, is seen to change that no-shape every instant. Out pushes a corner of the mass, gets larger, is drawn in again, or has another corner pushed out beside, or opposite it. The elder Mathews used to tell a story of a despairing pig-driver whose pig had broken loose, and who stood

in helpless misery, exclaiming, "Oh Christ! he'll run up all manner of streets!" The Amoeba seems inclined to run up all manner of streets at once, thrusting out its legs in all directions, and in simultaneous distraction. By "legs," of course, I do not mean the locomotive organs which in higher animals are so named. The leg of the Amoeba is quite a temporary organ-a mere bit of the body, pushed out anywhere for the purpose of progression. The elastic substance prolongs itself in one direction, a rush of granules is seen to set in, and enlarge this prolongation, till perhaps the whole substance passes into it; and thus the animal has dragged itself forward. Half-a-dozen such legs may be formed at once, and taken in again. Thus does the Amoeba deserve its original name of Proteus-he of many shapes

"If shape it could be called,

That shape had none."

Arms and legs are clearly superfluous to an animal with so accommodating a body: they are improvised when wanted, and abolished after their service is performed. We, nobler animals, cannot imitate that; but if our bodies are not so accommodating, our minds-that is, some of them

seem little less so; for there are men who improvise opinions and principles as the Amoeba improvises legs; looking in all directions at once, and changing with every changing impulse.

In these incoherent rambles which the Amoeba makes over the glassslide, he meets occasionally with a bit of food which tempts his appetite how will he appropriate it? Hands, to carry it to his mouth, he has none. Mouth, to receive it, he has none. Stomach, to digest it, he has none. One feels inclined to pity the hapless young gentleman who, to all theoretical appearance, must die of starvation in the midst of plenty. But Nature has provided even for this tiny existence. The care which extends throughout the universe will not fail even this microscopic point of life. We saw the Amoeba dispense with legs and arms; we may now see him dispense with mouth and stomach; 'tis an accommodating creature, taking life by the

easiest handle. There is the food; and he is seen deliberately wrapping himself round it. He will soon become all mouth and stomach. The food will be received into the substance of his body, a portion of which gives way, and closes again. There, such of it as is available, will be assimilated, and the undigested remains will find their way out as they originally found their way in.

It is not easy to watch the process of propagation, and we have as yet only general presumption in favour of the idea that the Amoeba, like the rest of the organic world, has any such function. If it be truly a cell, its propagation is probably the same as that of other cells-namely, a spontaneous division, forming two cells out of one. But hitherto I am not aware of any observer having indicated what is the real process.

To return from this digression to our Hydra. One of the remarkable points in its structure is certainly the existence of an immense number of minute capsules, each containing a spring, or thread, which, though coiled up within it, is easily made to dart out. Agassiz terms them lasso-cells, on the assumption that they are used like the lasso to entrap prey. The capsules resemble oil-flasks, and the neck of each is furnished with three hooklets; so that the supposition is, that the long lasso-threads envelop the victim, and hold it against these hooklets. And as if this supposition were not already sufficiently hazardous, Naturalists have added the further hypothesis of a poison secreted by these capsules. They are hence called nettling organs," and "urticating cells," and have been also found in all Sea-anemones, Jelly-fish, and in Planarice. How little foundation there is for this hypothesis, and how many contradictions it meets with when confronted with facts, have been shown in these pages, and need not therefore be longer dwelt on.* Enough if the attention of the speculative reader be called to one point respect

ing them, if the hypothesis of their secreting a poison be accepted.

In the animal series the lower forms are excessively simple, the higher forms excessively complex. In the course of its development, the higher animal passes through stages which are analogous to these gradations in the series; that is to say, it begins with a simple, and ends with a complex organisation: it was homogeneous, and has become more and more heterogeneous, by a gradual succession of differentiations. The lowest animals have no muscles, no nerves, no "organs." The early embryo of the highest animal is equally without muscles, nerves, organs. It has been the very natural tendency of transcendental anatomists to assume that this succession of differentiations must follow an order having reference to the proportionate importance of each step; and that the functions of Nutrition and Reproduction being the most important, these organs would be the first to appear. But observation by no means confirms this assumption. "The spirit of man," says Bacon somewhere," feigns in Nature a simplicity and uniformity greater than really is. Here, in the Hydra, we have an animal in whose homogeneous substance the very first differentiation that has taken place is the establishment of capsules, with hooklets and threads, said to be organs for the secretion of poison; and this before any other organs, or differentiations, have taken place which could minister to the functions of Nutrition and Reproduction. Whatever the function of these thread-capsules may be, they demand attention as the very first differentiation which the Polype shows; for the muscle-cell only exists in one species, and even that is far less special than the thread-capsule.

But perhaps you care nothing for transcendental anatomy? You think transcendental synonymous with moonshine, and anatomy "nasty?" De gustibus. I might deprecate both opinions, and loudly, dithyrambically, expound the enjoyments and advan

tages to be derived from speculation and anatomy (the latter, by the way, by no means nasty when the subject is one of these simple animals, but a study which may be followed in the drawing-room if necessary); but I will no longer play the part of a tyrant-host, and you shall be released from further demands on your visitorial complaisance. Maga invites you to her liberal board, but is far from insisting that you shall eat of all the dishes. Pay your money and take your choice. Your half-crown is as good as that of the most transcendental of anatomists; and it is probable that you have more of them. Besides, our polypes are far from being dependent upon speculative questions for their high interest. Hood, in his humorous parody of George Robins, describes a courtyard in glowing terms; and having, with due emphasis, particularised its pump, adds, in typographic eloquence

"THE PUMP-HANDLE!

WITHIN REACH OF THE SMALLEST CHILD!"

In imitation, I would say the polypes have handles within reach of the smallest intellect; and even your capacious brain, dear reader, will find matter for wonderment and amusement in these tiny creatures.

Consider, for a moment, their sublime indifference to injuries. It is one of the advantages of having a simple organism, in which each part is a repetition of the others, that wounds and injuries do not seriously interfere with the vital actions. If you cut the polype in two, it will not die-it will become two polypes; a new head and tentacles will grow on the one half, a new body and continuation on the other. These may again be cut into pieces, and again they will reappear, like the heads of the mythic Hydra after which the polype is named. They seem equally indifferent to diseases as to injuries. I once saw a Hydra fusca part with nearly half its substance, which was decomposing, and having relieved itself of this useless mass, remain sticking to the glass beside its companions, where it continued for many days, doing as well as could be expected," and probably developed a new half, though it escaped my observation.

In more complex organisms, having particular parts of the structure allotted to the performance of particular functions-or, as the physiologists say, specialised-the removal of these parts is the destruction of the functions. In the higher animals, Nutrition is closely dependent on Circulation, and Circulation on Respiration, and Respiration again on Nervous agency, while the Nervous agency is in turn dependent on a due supply of arterial blood. Thus does each part of the mechanism depend on the other; and a finger pressing on the heart, or a wound opening an artery, suffices to arrest this wondrous mechanism. Not so in the simpler polype. There all parts do the work of all; and the "nine lives" attributed to the cat is true of the hydra.

Simple, also, is the method of reproduction in the polype. Like the plant, it reproduces itself in two ways; by budding and by generation. To sce a fish having three or four juvenile fishes growing out of the parent's side, or even an oyster "budding" young natives, would certainly astound both the laity and the philosophers, especially the latter, in spite of their greater familiarity with animal paradoxes. But no one seems astounded to observe a polype with young polypes growing from its side, all actively engaged in seeking their own food. The laity are not astonished, because they think of a rosetree with its colony of buds, and accept the fact as if there were no paradox in it; the philosophers, because they have learned that gemmation (budding) is one of Nature's modes of Reproduction, exemplified by many of the simpler organisms.

What is this process of gemmation? Is it, as the physiologists assert, a peculiar mode of Reproduction, and deserving of a separate category? I cannot think so. I admit that a peculiar name may be necessary to mark the phenomenon, and to distinguish it from other phenomena of Growth, such as the mere increase of size, or the reproduction of parts which have been cut off; but any attempt to distinguish Gemmation as a special process must meet with such difficulties, both of observation and reasoning, that it cannot main