156 CHARACTERS OF THE PANTHER AND LEOPARD. 



have given rise to a multitude of traditions and ridiculous 

 fables, as if all the extraordinary productions of nature must 

 necessarily be a constant source of superstition and terror to 

 the human mind. We have thought that we ought not to 

 neglect these popular traditions; without being indispensable 

 to science they form an interesting supplement to it. 



" We shall conclude our history with an alphabetical table of 

 all the names, generic, specific and trivial, which have been 

 employed by different authors and different people to desig- 

 nate the Medusae, and some curious results have been ob- 

 tained from this comparison : thus for instance, from the most 

 ancient periods of history to our own times, we find all na- 

 tions agreeing to designate these animals by names corre- 

 sponding to the cnide and acalephe of the Greeks, which also 

 correspond to the urtica of the Latins ; and, if we endeavour 

 to ascend to the origin of this singular conformity of names, 

 we shall find it in the property which some species have of 

 causing a stinging and burning sensation, similar to that 

 which, under the same circumstances, the nettle, Urtica urens, 

 of the different countries of Europe, will produce." 



The following is the outline of the principles of the classi- 

 fication, proposed by MM. Peron and Lesueur, for these ani- 

 mals : — 



1st. The Medusae which are entirely gelatinous. 



2d. Those which have a vesicular membrane, containing 

 air, attached to the upper part of the body. 



Of the first division, some of the Medusae have the margin 

 of their disk ciliated; others have the margin simple. Some 

 have no stomach, the Agastria; others possess that cavity; 

 and, of these some have a single aperture leading to it, the 

 Monostoma, while others have many apertures, the Poly- 

 stoma. Again, some Medusae have a central peduncle, depen- 

 dent from them, while others are destitute of this appendage. 

 — Such are the points of structure which these Naturalists 

 have adopted as foundations of their primary divisions of this 

 singular and beautiful group of animals. 



CHARACTERS OF THE PANTHER AND LEOPARD. 



To the Editor of the Zoological Magazine, 



Sir, 

 In reply to your invitation to state my opinion of the spe- 

 cific characters of the Panther and Leopard, founded by 

 M. Temminck on the number of the caudal vertebrae, I will 

 candidly admit that I omitted to take advantage of many op- 

 portunities to ascertain the fact. In the absence of personal 



