166 ANTHEADJE. 



embrace, in less than five minutes after its capture. But — 

 de eo actum est ! it was all up with the poor Eel ; its eyes 

 were already dimmed in death, and it lay in my hand 

 flaccid and helpless, with only a momentary convulsion or 

 two; _the fatal cnidce of the tentacles had done their 

 work : and when I restored it to the offended gourmand, it 

 was speedily lost to view, coiled up in the capacious maw. 



Numerous witnesses vouch for the fact, — though others, 

 myself included, are insensible to it,— that the contact of 

 Antheas tentacles has a perceptible morbific power on the 

 human skin. One of the most distinct statements of the 

 fact that I have met with is contained in the following 

 communication, for which I am indebted to Miss Pinchard. 

 an accomplished naturalist of Torquay : — 



"I have myself been repeatedly so affected by their 

 dinging to the back of my hand as to have the skin 

 mottled, and so tender as to induce me to refrain from 

 willingly coming in contact with them. On one occasion 

 the whole of the back of the hand and fingers was covered 

 with white blisters, as if I had thrust it into a bed of 

 nettles, and nearly as painful. The affection did not last 

 above an hour or two, and only occurred when the Antheas 

 had become flaccid and feeble, as they often do after a 

 short captivity. I have never found any effect arise from 

 handling them when they were in an active and healthy 

 state." 



Mr. Dana attributes to the kindred species, A. flagelli- 

 fera, a power of making its terrors known even at a 

 distance. " Having a number of Monodontas [a genus of 

 univalve Mollusca allied to our Trochi] too much crowded 

 in a large jar of water, I took out half-a-dozen and placed 

 them in a jar with the Actinia. On looking at them about 

 three hours after, I found that, instead of climbing like the 

 others to the top of the water, they remained just where 



