The Sex Life of the Polyp

You remember our last lecture. We took up the subject of emotional crises in sponge life, and we saw how wonderfully nature takes care of the thousand and one things which a sponge must think of before it can, uh, reproduce as the sponges. We also saw, if you remember, that a positive sponge, it made it with a negative sponge, will reproduce positive sponges, and vice versa. We also saw this it is known as Wiscomb's Law so-called after Professor Wiscomb, who discovered it quite by accident one day in the bathtub.

Now this afternoon, we will take up certain phases of the emotional and physical reactions of the polyp, as expressed in its … sex life, if you can call it sex life.

The polyp as you know is that tiny organism which grows under the sea, and which looks something like a … well you've seen a snail … it's not exactly like a snail, it's smaller than a snail … and a small dog isn't it either. Well I brought some of the little creatures here which we've been using in the laboratory, and they may serve to show what the Irishmen called "the nature of the beast."

Eh! I don't think we'll gonna see her after all. Well, never mind. I have some pictures here, which I'm gonna to show you later, in the afternoon.

Now the only way in which a polyp resembles other animals at all, is that at certain periods during its growth, it does display a sentimental interest in polyps of the … opposite sex. Now this presents a very complicated situation as the polyp has no definite sex itself, and it's neither one thing or another. By that I mean the same polyp may be either a boy, or a girl, according to what, or how, it happens to … feel like … being.

As Doctor … as Doctor Achsenhorst says in his valuable book, Die Welschmiss des Polypismus: "Die eilander Kondischauns to fornixfil suzammen geworden bei a selbst machen nicht viederaupen anzustellen." And this mark you, from a man who gave his whole life to a study of the subject.

Now this tendency to change sex at any moment, while it does save the polyp a great deal of time and expense, nevertheless makes difficult any definite analysis of its sex behavior. However Doctor Rasmussen and I made some interesting experiments along this line, and it is the result of these experiments that I wish to bring before you this afternoon.

I think I'll lower the screen now Mrs. Pratt?

Well, that's more like it.

In order to study the polyp at close range, which is about the only way you can study a polyp after all, we took one of the tiny creatures home with us to live. It was at the time a girl polyp, so we called her Mary, after Ethel Barrymore. She was at first naturally shy, but soon grew accustomed to our managed ways, and became more like a child of our own than like a polyp. Well she looks more like a polyp than like a child of our own. It was in this way that we were able to tell the difference.

Lights out please Mr. Cassidy?

That's fine, thank you Mr. Cassidy.

Now, here is the picture of Mary, taken when she'd been with us only a few weeks. It really isn't a very good of her, taken as it was when the light was poor, and magnified about a hundred times, but it may serve to give you some idea of her personality and charm.

What fun it was to watch her grow, and to feel that we were having a share, however small, in her development.

Along about May, we decided that it was time to make our experiments. Now having the female, it was naturally necessary for us to provide a … male. And to this end, we went to Bermuda for a few weeks, Bermuda being a great hangout for polyps. Here we were fortunate enough to locate a colony of the little fellows who seemed to be in good physical condition.

Here is a picture that we were able to get out of a group of the little fellows out for a good time. You may be sure that the lazy rogues have their fun, as who does not? It was from this aggregation that we decided to select a husband for Mary, and after a careful examination under the microscope, we decided to choose the one which you will see the third from the left in this picture. No, now it's the fourth. Now it's the fifth, from the left. This little chap up here in the corner tried to get away, but the camera was too quick for it.

Now having the necessary male for our experiment, we placed the two polyps in an open space behind the Princess Hotel and proceeded to await developments. Here is a picture taken just before the gong sounded. The one on the right is the male and on the left the female. But I'm mistaken! Yes I am mistaken, the one on the right is the male, female and is on the left of the male, what a mistake.

One unusual thing about the polyp courtship is its restraint, a polyp is only a polyp after all, and has its little weaknesses like the rest of us. I for one would not have it otherwise. But even so, the entire courtship is carried on with an open space between the male and female of perhaps fifty cases of polyp measure, which in a way makes it difficult for the male to be anything much more than just a pal.

The male has a rather unusual way of attracted attention of the opposite sex, female. It was Doctor Rasmussen who discovered that during the courting season … the courting season begins on the tenth of March and extends on through the following February … leaving about ten days for general overhauling and repairs.

During the courting season—

—the male gives forth a strange phosphorescent glow, something like a diamond scarf pin. Now this glow is supposed to be very attractive to the female and it is by dazzling her with his appearance of elegance that the male is able to bring the lady around to … his point of view.

In order to test the powers of observation of the male during these maneuvers, we played a rather mean trick on the little fellow. We took away the original female, for whom he was so frantically flashing his glamour, and put in her place another, but less attractive, female. This seems to make no difference at all to the male who continued to flash on just the same. We then took away the second female, and put in her place a small button, something the color of a polyp; following this with a crumb of cornbread.

Now as so far as we were able to detect, this change in personnel made no difference at all to the male, who continued to exert himself, still under the impression, that he was making a conquest, even with the crump of cornbread.

Now this little ruse of us, while it proved that the male polyp is not particularly clear as to just what it is, he's after, rather put an end to our experiment as a whole, for the male evidently disgusted at in his inability to excite the button, or the crumb of cornbread, suddenly gave up the whole thing as a bad job, and turned into a female.

And this left us practically where we were at the first place, with no male at all.

So Doctor Rasmussen and I, after finding a good home in Bermuda, for what were now our two girl polyps, returned to America, still marveling at Nature's wonderful accomplishments in the realm of sex, but rather inclined to complete our experiments with some animal which takes its sex life a little more seriously.