Toilers in the sea / [M.C. Cooke].

  • Cooke, M. C. (Mordecai Cubitt), 1825-1914.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Toilers in the sea / [M.C. Cooke]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    haps muscular, coats, and are filled with a much less consistent matter than that of the body of the polyp itself. Hence it appears that many polypes commu- nicate together, and form a compound animal. The space between the tubes is occupied by a loose fibrous tissue, with the interstices filled with a trans- parent gelatine, in which lie numerous irregular spicules. These spicules are mostly of the form of a. cross, and toothed on the sides, formed of carbonate of lime (fig. 34), and have no organic connexion either with the tissue or the tubes. The ova are contained in the polyp tubes; they are white at first, but at length become of a scarlet colour, opaque, globose, and about the size of a grain of sand ; ultimately they are expelled from the mouth.1 The polyp-masses are of a greyish white 1 “ History of British Zoophytes.55 By George Johnston, M.D.- (London, 1847.) Vol. i. p. 175.