156 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



tentacula at will; nor is it at first obvious how ad- 

 hesion, either there or to the rest of the body, is 

 effected. Microscopic examination, however, shows 

 this faculty to reside in a special prehensile apparatus, 

 extensively distributed over the skin, consisting of 

 innumerable capsules, which at the slightest touch 

 appear to burst, and project long adhesive filaments, 

 that stick to foreign bodies with as much pertinacity 

 as burs to a lady's dress. 



If one of these animals, when recently taken out of 

 the water, be placed with the tentacula in contact with 

 the human skin, and allowed to remain there for a 

 few seconds, a smarting pain will sometimes be expe- 

 rienced, and the surface of the skin touched by the 

 zoophyte will occasionally exhibit an inflammatory 

 blush, speedily followed by a sort of nettle-rash, with 

 a sense of burning and tingling, which will last for 

 more than an hour. 



A still more decisive method of appreciating this 

 irritating power of the Actiniae is, to bite one of the 

 tentacula between the fore teeth, applying at the same 

 time the extremity of the tongue to the part bitten : 

 the sensation produced is almost precisely similar to 

 that caused by biting, as schoolboys sometimes do, 

 the acrimonious spadix of the Arum maculatum, a 

 taste something between that of a capsicum and that 

 of a red-hot poker. 



The senses of the Actinia seem to be extremely ob- 

 tuse, and its perceptions alike obscure and imperfect. 

 The creature neither seems sensible of the presence of 

 its favourite prey even when in its immediate vicinity, 

 nor does it resort to the quickest and easiest means 



