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164
Glaucus; Or, The Wonders of the Shore
·
Charles Kingsley
76
You
will
find
it
stick
to
your
fingers
by
the
whole
skin,
causing,
if
your
hand
be
delicate,
a
tingling
sensation;
and
if
you
examine
the
skin
under
the
microscope,
you
will
find
the
cause.
The
whole
skin
is
studded
with
minute
glass
anchors,
some
hanging
freely
from
the
surface,
but
most
imbedded
in
the
skin.
Each
of
these
anchors
is
jointed
at
its
root
into
one
end
of
a
curious
cribriform
plate,—
in
plain
English,
one
pierced
like
a
sieve,
which
lies
under
the
skin,
and
reminds
one
of
the
similar
plates
in
the
skin
of
the
White
Cucumaria,
which
I
will
show
you
presently;
and
both
of
these
we
must
regard
as
the
first
rudiments
of
an
Echinoderm’s
outside
skeleton,
such
as
in
the
Sea-urchins
covers
the
whole
body
of
the
animal.
(See
on
Echinus
Millaris,
p.
89.)
{111}
Somewhat
similar
anchor-plates,
from
a
Red
Sea
species,
Synapta
Vittata,
may
be
seen
in
any
collection
of
microscopic
objects.
The
animal,
when
caught,
has
a
strange
habit
of
self-destruction,
contracting
its
skin
at
two
or
three
different
points,
and
writhing
till
it
snaps
itself
into
“junks,”
as
the
sailors
would
say,
and
then
dies.
My
specimens,
on
breaking
up,
threw
out
from
the
wounded
part
long
“ovarian
filaments”
(whatsoever
those
may
be),
similar
to
those
thrown
out
by
many
of
the
Sagartian
anemones,
especially
S.
parasitica.
Beyond
this,
I
can
tell
you
nothing
about
Synapta,
and
only
ask
you
to
consider
its
hands,
as
an
instance
of
that
fantastic
play
of
Nature
which
repeats,
in
families
widely
different,
organs
of
similar
form,
though
perhaps
of
by
no
means
similar
use;
nay,
sometimes
(as
in
those
beautiful
clear-wing
hawk-moths
which
you,
as
they
hover
round
the
rhododendrons,
mistake
for
bumble-bees)
repeats
the
outward
form
of
a
whole
animal,
for
no
conceivable
reason
save
her—
shall
we
not
say
honestly
His?—
own
good
pleasure.
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