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those Anemones which were rough ; such, for instance, as Crassicornis. He 

 had sometimes seen them projected as long as 10 inches. In examining 

 them he had done as Mr. Bedwell suggested, and cut off portions, and he 

 quite agreed with him that the beads were rounded and ciliated, and 

 crammed full of little dart-like needles. The plate in Mr Gosse's book 

 would, no doubt, make this clearer than any explanation which he could 

 give. 



Dr. Matthews said there was one curious circumstance about the threads, 

 which he thought worth mentioning ; he had examined them under high 

 powers, but not one vestige of muscular fibre could he find, and yet it 

 seemed perfectly evident that they were actuated as much by muscular 

 action as any other part of the organism. Another question of interest was, 

 whether the poison, or means of offence, was of an animal nature, or whether 

 it was electric — both had been suggested. 



The President said that, though he was not familiar with the particular 

 organism which formed the subject of the paper, he was very well 

 acquainted with the corresponding organs of the Hydrozoa, the whole of 

 which class were provided with apparatus of this kind. The so-called 

 " Portuguese Man-of-War " — the PhysaMa — had the most formidable 

 battery of this kind of any animal in the world, the tentacles hanging down 

 some 7 or 8 feet long, and being beset with reniform thickenings, each of 

 which was stuffed full of thread-cells. He was not surprised that there 

 had been difficulty in observing the presence of muscular fibre, because, 

 though it was there, it was probably all of an unstriped kind, and therefore 

 somewhat difficult to make out. The question of the cause of the irritation 

 produced by these thread-cells was a curious one ; he thought, however, that 

 they might put aside the idea of electric action, because the facts could be 

 sufficiently accounted for without such a supposition. As regarded the Phy- 

 saMa, if any one felt inclined to try it they would find that the stinging sen- 

 sation produced was much more severe than that of the worst stinging nettle 

 they ever experienced ; and if, whilst a person had his hand partially covered 

 with these stinging organs, he happened to pass his hand over his face, the 

 effect produced was of a most enlivening character. It was the outer layer 

 of the tentacles which contained the stinging organs, each of which con- 

 sisted of an elastic sac containing a long thread. When touched, the sac 

 was turned inside out with surprising rapidity, and the small spine-like 

 threads came in contact with the object which had excited the action — in the 

 Physalia they would find thousands of these sacs. There was a curious 

 question, however, as to whether the irritation produced was of a 

 mechanical nature, or whether it was of a chemical nature — whether it was 

 due to the excessive fineness of the threads alone, or whether it was not 

 also aided by something of a poisonons nature contained within the sacs 

 themselves. It might, perhaps, be remembered that there was an old trick 

 sometimes played by schoolboys of putting cowage into one's bed which 

 caused a good deal of uncomfortable sensation ; it might be that the effect 

 of the stinging organs in question was of this character, but he thought it 

 also probable that the clear liquid contained in the sacs might have some- 



