half-putrefying

Updated: June 20, 2025

You look at a sea anemone in a pool on the rocks when the tide is out, all its tendrils outstretched, and its cavity wide open. Some little bit of seaweed, or some morsel of half-putrefying matter, comes in contact with it, and instantly every tentacle is retracted, and the lips are tightly closed, so that you could not push a bristle in.

Alexander Maclaren - Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. Luke