ON THE MEDUSiE. 153 



Ocean also nourishes rich and numerous species of them. 

 Every maritime people, from the highest antiquity, seem to 

 have been acquainted with them; Pnilippides, Eupolis, Aris- 

 tophanes and Diphilus before Aristotle, have mentioned them; 

 and from the time of Pliny down to our own age, more than one 

 hundred and fifty writers of all the nations of Europe have 

 occupied themselves with their history. 



" Notwithstanding so many labours and praiseworthy ex- 

 ertions, the genus Medusa is still one of those which most 

 abounds with the uncertainties and errors of the naturalist ; 

 and these uncertainties, these errors, belong to the very na- 

 ture of the animals about which we are speaking. In fact, no 

 other animals unite such singularity in the nature of their 

 constituent substance, so much variety in their forms, so much 

 diversity in their organs, so many anomalies in their vital 

 functions, — and none therefore present the physiologist with 

 more problems to resolve, or more discoveries to follow up. 



" The substance of the Medusas, for instance, resolves itself, 

 by a kind of instantaneous fusion, into a fluid analogous to 

 sea-water, and yet the most important functions of life are 

 carried on in a body which seems to be, as it were, nothing 

 but coagulated water. The multiplication of these animals 

 is prodigious, but we know nothing positively about their 

 mode of generation; they may attain the size of several feet 

 in diameter, they sometimes weigh from fifty to sixty pounds, 

 and yet their digestive organs escape our notice; they exe- 

 cute very rapid and long-continued motions, but the details 

 of their muscular system are unknown ; their secretions are 

 very abundant, and we see nothing which can furnish us with 

 a theory about them; they have some sort of respiration 

 which is very active, while the true seat of it is a mystery; 

 they appear excessively weak, but fish of considerable size 

 are their daily food; one would imagine that their stomach 

 was incapable of any kind of action on these latter animals, 

 but in a few moments they are digested : many of them con- 

 ceal in their interior considerable quantities of air; we are 

 equally ignorant by what means they can either receive it 

 from the atmosphere, or from the water, or develop it in their 

 intestines. A great number of these Zoophytes are phosphoric; 

 they shine in the midst of darkness like so many globes of 

 fire; but the nature, the principle, and the agents of this won- 

 derful property are as yet undiscovered : some of them sting 

 and benumb the hand that touches them; the cause of this 

 sensation is still a problem. It would be easy for me to en- 

 ter into longer details of the singularities which distinguish 

 the Medusae; but it is sufficient to have pointed out the 



