The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1873-05-08
The Polyp.

1t is not a long stride from the
foraminifera to the polyps. Indeed, the
line which separates these little creatures
of the sea is not very distinctly drawn;
perhaps not in fact; certainly it is not
very clearly discerned or traced by sci
ence. These polyps are verify monsters.
They have been known to attain the
gigantic size of one-third of an inch
in length. ''The most prominent
member of this group" says M. Taudon,
''is the fresh-water polyp, or Hydra uiridss.
It looks like little straight bag, tubular,
semi-transparent, greenish, open at one
end, and fashioned like a trumpet's
mouth, having around the opening six,
occasionally eight or ten, tentacles-hne,
filiform, and flexible arms, arranged
around the mouth in the form of crown.
Thus the bag is the body, the opening is
the mouth, the cavity is the stomach,
and the tentaeles the arms. This, then,
is the whole polyp.'
1t is a voracious creature, and has
never learned the virtue of temperance.
1t never has enough. Its stomach pos
sesses curious power of adapting itself
to its food, so that the polyp has the
pleasure of eating occasionally a quantity
of food three or four times the bulk of
its own body. Sometimes it finds that
its meal is too great for its digestive pow
ers. 1t then elects part that it may
digest the rest. st. Francis de Sales,
pointing to the brutes, drew from them a
moral for the benefit of man. "They are
sober and temperate, he exclaimed,
land never eat more than their appetites
demand" The worthy father was evi-
IDENTITY unacquainted with the habits oil
the polyps. Sometimes a worm swaE
lowed by this monster struggles to escape
The polyp thrusts his long arm into his
own stomach, and holds the worm firmly
there till he has dissolved. If the end
of the polyp is cut off, he does not seem
to suffer any serious Inconvenience. lie
eats on as before, though, now that the
bottom of his stomach is gone, all hi:
prey simply passes out at the other enc
of the tube. Indeed, the glutton may
-ss count himself fortunate, since he can ea
as much as he pleases without any dan
ger of being gorged. Whether the stom
ach is in time supplied again by growth
we are not told This is by no means
impossible however. For generally am
putation only adds new polyp to tht
world. In his arithmetic division anC
multiplication are identical. Cut off hi
arm, not only does another grow to tak'
its place, but the amputated limb be
comes itself new polyp. Cut him into
pieces, we only make of the individual /
community. He even turns himself in
side out like the tabled gymnast; it is O
no consequence. his SKIN makes yer.
good stomach, and the stomach a yer,
good skin. The polyps naturally prefe
to live in the other way; naturalist
have, however, succeeded in transfxin
them with fine needle, thus compellin
them to remain in their new condition
Their functions go on as before. Will
out apparent organs of sense, withou
heart, lungs, intestines, or brains, the
perform with seeming success all tn
functions of higher animals-fght, fe
from danger, capture their prey, brin
up their children, and, in short, fulfill a
the duties which God has devolved upo
them. Nor do they seem to lack INTEL
gence, though the organs of Intelligent
are wholly wanting. In what the ma
veleus instincts of these brainless, nerv
less creatures reside is question whic
we commend to the consideration of til
phrenologist. From Life under th
ocean Wave" by LYMAN ABBOTT, in H0
per's Magazine for May.