Читать книгу Jelly-Fish, Star-Fish, and Sea-Urchins: Being a Research on Primitive Nervous Systems - George John Romanes - Страница 14

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So far as my observations extend, I find that all Medusæ, after removal of their locomotor centres, invariably respond to every kind of stimulation. To take the case of Sarsia as a type, nothing can possibly be more definite than is the single sharp contraction of the mutilated nectocalyx in response to every nip with the forceps. The contraction is precisely similar to the ordinary ones that are performed by the unmutilated animal; so that by repeating the stimulus a number of times, the nectocalyx, with its centres of spontaneity removed, may be made to progress by a succession of contractions round and round the vessel in which it is contained, just as a frog, with its cerebral hemispheres removed, may be made to hop along the table in response to a succession of stimulations.[8]

Different species of Medusæ exhibit different degrees of irritability in responding to stimuli; but in all the cases I have met with the degree of irritability is remarkably high. Thus, I have seen responsive contractions of the whole umbrella follow upon the exceedingly slight stimulus caused by a single drop of sea-water let fall upon the irritable surface from the height of one inch. As regards chemical stimulation, dilute spirit or other irritant, when dropped on the paralyzed swimming organ of Aurelia aurita, often gives rise to a whole series of rhythmical pulsations, the systoles and diastoles following one another at about the same rate as is observable in the normal swimming motions of the unmutilated animal.

It is somewhat difficult, in the case of paralyzed swimming organs, to prove the occurrence of a contraction in response to thermal stimulation, from the fact that while these tissues are not nearly so sensitive to this mode of excitation as might be anticipated, they are, as just observed, extraordinarily sensitive to mechanical excitation. It therefore becomes difficult to administer the appropriate thermal stimulus without at the same time causing a sufficient mechanical disturbance to render it doubtful to which of the stimuli the response is due. This may be done, however, by allowing a few drops of heated sea-water to run over the excitable surface while it is exposed to the air. In this and in other ways I have satisfied myself that the paralyzed tissues of swimming organs respond to sudden elevations of temperature.