Fig. 91. Cassiopea Andromeda (Tilesius).
In some of the Medusadæ the central mouth is absent altogether. With the Rhizostoma, for instance, the stomachal reservoir has no inferior orifice; it communicates laterally with the canals which descend through the thickness of the arms, and open at their extremities through a multitude of small mouths. These are the root-like openings from which the animals derive their name of Rhizostoma, from the Greek words ῥίζα, root, and στόμα, mouth.
Fig. 92. Cephea Cyclophora.
The arms of the Rhizostoma are usually eight in number, the free extremities of each being slightly enlarged: in these arms many small openings or mouths occur, which are the entrances to so many ascending canals communicating with larger ones, as the veins do in the higher animals: the common trunk canal is thus formed, which directs itself to the stomach, receiving in its way thither all the lateral branches.
A very distinct circulation exists in the Medusæ. The peripheric part of the stomach suffers the nourishing liquid which has been elaborated in the digestive cavity to pass: this fluid then circulates through numerous canals, the existence of which have been clearly traced.
It is also a singular fact, that organs of sense seem to have been discovered in these Medusæ, which early observers believed to be altogether destitute of organization. "During my sojourn on the banks of the Red Sea," says Ehrenberg, in his work on the Medusa aurita, "although I had many times examined the brownish bodies upon the edge of the disk of the Medusæ, it is only in the month past that I have recognized their true nature and function. Each of these bodies consists of a little yellow button, oval or cylindrical, fixed upon a thin peduncle. The peduncle is attached to a vesicle, in which the microscope reveals a glandular body, yellow when the light traverses it, but white when the light is only reflected on it. From this body issue two branches, which proceed towards the peduncle or base of the brown body up to the button or head. I have found that each of these small brown bodies presents a very distinct red point placed on the dorsal face of the yellow head; and when I compare this with my other observations of similar red points in other animals, I find that they greatly resemble the eyes of the Rotifera and Entomostraca. The bifurcating body placed at the base of the brown spot appears to be a nervous ganglion, and its branches may be regarded as optic nerves. Each pedunculated eye presents upon its lower face a small yellow sac, in which are found, in greater or smaller numbers, small crystalline bodies clear as water." The presence of a red pigment in very fine grains is an argument in favour of the existence of visual organs in these zoophytes, for the small crystals disseminated in the interior of the organ would no doubt perform the part of refracting light which is produced by crystalline in the eyes of vertebrated animals. Moreover, it is found that there are marginal corpuscles analogous to these brown spots in other species of Medusæ. They are of a palish yellow, or quite colourless, and enclose sometimes a single, sometimes many calcareous corpuscles. When they are colourless, some naturalists have rather taken them for ears reduced to their most simple expression.
The Medusæ are not absolutely destitute of nervous system. We have seen that they have ganglions, and probably optic nerves. Ehrenberg also states that they have ganglions at their base, which furnish them with nervous filaments.
Without entering further into the details of their delicate and complicated structure, we shall pause briefly on their mode of reproduction. We shall find here physiological phenomena so remarkable as to appear incredible, had not the researches of modern naturalists placed the facts beyond all doubt. "Which of us," says M. de Quatrefages, "would not proclaim the prodigy, if he saw a reptile issue from an egg laid in his court-yard, which afterwards gave birth to an indefinite number of fishes and birds? Well, the generation of the Medusæ is at least as marvellous as the fact which we have imagined." Let us note, for example, what takes place with the Rose Aurelia, a beautiful Medusa, of a pale rose colour, with nearly hemispherical disk, from four to five inches in diameter, whose edge is furnished with short russet-brown tentacles; taking for our guide the eloquent and learned author of the "Metamorphosis in Men and Animals," M. de Quatrefages.