XXXV111 INTRODUCTION. 



presented to the tentacles of a fully expanded T. crassicornis. 

 After contact, and momentary adhesion, I withdrew the 

 cuticle, and examined it under a power of 600 diameters. 

 I found, as I had expected, cnidce studding the surface, 

 standing up endwise, the wires in every case shot into the 

 substance. They were not numerous — in a space of '01 

 inch square, I counted about a dozen. 



I then irritated a S. parasitica till it ejected an acontium, 

 and taking up with pliers another shaving of the cuticle, 

 allowed it to touch the acontium, which instantly adhered 

 across its surface. I now drew away the cuticle gently, so 

 as not to rupture the acontium, and examining it as before, 

 immediately saw dense groups of cnidce, standing endwise 

 on the surface, the ecthorcea all discharged and inserted in 

 the substance almost to the very capsules. The groups 

 were set in a sinuous line, across the cuticle, where the 

 acontium had adhered, with scattered cnidce between them 

 on the same line. In one of these groups I counted thirty- 

 five cnidce in an area about "0025 inch square. 



These examples prove that the slightest contact with the 

 proper organs of the Anemone is sufficient to provoke the 

 discharge of the cnidce; and that even the densest condition 

 of the human skin offers no impediment to the penetration 

 of the ccthorcea. 



As to the injection of a poison, it is indubitable that 

 pain, and in some cases death, ensues even to vertebrate 

 animals from momentary contact with the capsuliferous 

 organs of the Zoopiiyta. The very severe pain, followed 

 by torpor, lasting for a whole day, which Mr. George 

 Bennett has described as experienced by himself, on taking- 

 hold of Physalis 'pclacjica, was produced by the contact of 

 the tentacles. The late Professor Edward Forbes has 

 graphically depicted the "prickly torture" which results to 

 " tender-skinned bathers," from the touch of the long 

 filamentous tentacles — "poisonous threads" — of the Cyancea 

 capillata of our own seas ; and observes that these ampu- 

 tated weapons severed from the parent-body, sting as fiercely 

 as if their original proprietor itself gave the word of 

 attack. I have been assured by ladies that they have felt 

 a distinct stinging sensation, like that produced by the 

 leaves of the nettle, on the tender skin of the fingers, from 

 handling our common Antliea cereus ; while, on the other 

 hand, I have myself handled the species, scores of times, 



