The Life of CrustaceaCalman, W. T. (William Thomas)
Science
The Life of Crustacea
Calman, W. T. (William Thomas)
Crustacea
particles of iron filings in the cavities, and a strong electro-magnet
was brought near the side of the vessel in which it was kept. It was
observed that the Prawn, which had been swimming in the usual horizontal
position, at once turned the under-side of its body towards the magnet,
and swam about on its side as long as the magnet was in action. When the
current exciting the magnet was cut off, the animal resumed its ordinary
position. This experiment shows that these organs, to which we may now
give their proper name of _statocysts_, are organs for perceiving the
direction of the force of gravity. The magnetic force acted on the
particles of iron in the same way that the force of gravity acts on the
sand-grains in normal conditions, and the Prawn felt the weight of them,
so to speak, pulling towards the side instead of the bottom of the
vessel, and turned its body accordingly, to swim, as it supposed, right
side up. It is now known that those parts of the human ear called the
"semicircular canals" have a somewhat similar function as "organs of
orientation," although to animals walking on the solid ground this
function is not so important as it doubtless is to animals swimming in
water.
The sense of _smell_ is believed to have its seat chiefly in the
antennules. The outer branch of each antennule bears tufts of peculiar
hairs, in which the chitinous covering is extremely delicate, so that
substances dissolved in the water can easily pass through and affect
the nerve-endings within. These hairs are known as "olfactory
filaments."
The sense of _taste_ in aquatic animals is, perhaps, not sharply defined
from that of smell, but it is not very rash to assume that certain hairs
on the mouth parts and on the fleshy upper and lower lips which bound
the opening of the mouth have to do specially with this sense.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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