The presence of a sense of smell in Star-fish was proved by keeping
some of these animals for several days in a tank without food, and
then presenting them with small pieces of shell-fish. The Star-fish
immediately perceived the proximity of food, as shown by their
immediately crawling towards it. Moreover, if a small piece of the
food were held in a pair of forceps and gently withdrawn as the
Star-fish approached it, the animal could be led about the floor
of the tank in any direction, just as a hungry dog could be led
about by continually withdrawing from his nose a piece of meat as
he continually follows it up. This experiment, however, was only
successful with Star-fish which had been kept fasting for several
days; freshly caught Star-fish were not nearly so keen in their
manifestations, and indeed in many cases did not notice the food at
all.
Desiring to ascertain whether the sense of smell were localized in
any particular organs, as we had found to be the case with the sense
of sight, I first tried the effect of removing the five ocelli. This
produced no difference in the result of the above experiment with
hungry Star-fish, and therefore I next tried the effect of cutting
off the tips of the rays. The Star-fish behaving as before, I then
progressively truncated the rays, and thus eventually found that the
olfactory sense was equally distributed throughout their length. The
question, however, still remained whether it was equally distributed
over both the upper and the lower surfaces. I therefore tried the
effect of varnishing the upper surface. The Star-fish continued to
find its food as before, which showed that the sense of smell was
distributed along the lower surface. I could not try the converse
experiment of varnishing this surface, because I should thereby have
hindered the action of the ambulacral feet. But by another method
I was able nearly as well to show that the upper surface does not
participate in smelling. This method consisted in placing a piece of
shell-fish upon the upper surface and allowing it to rest there. When
this was done, the Star-fish made no attempt to remove the morsel
of food by brushing it off with the tips of its rays, as is the
habit of the animal when any irritating substance is applied to this
surface. Therefore I conclude that the upper or dorsal surface of a
Star-fish takes no part in ministering to the sense of smell, which
by the experiment of varnishing this surface, and also by that of
progressively truncating the rays, is proved to be distributed over
the whole of the ventral or lower surface of the animal. For I must
add that severed rays behave in all these respects like the entire
organisms, although they are disconnected from the mouth and disc.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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