DO THE ANEMONES STING? 135 



pacified as she saw the struggling insect slowly passing 

 into the stomach of the Anthea, his struggles growing 

 fainter and fainter, and finally ceasing altogether, till at 

 last we saw him with head and thorax engulfed in the 

 ravenous maw, his abdomen sticking up in the air. 



A question of great interest and some intricacy here 

 presents itself: Was the beetle jKiralysed by some 

 peculiar poison secreted from the tentacles of the Ane- 

 mone ? — a question which opens into this wider one : 

 Have the Polypes the mysterious power, almost uni- 

 versally attributed to them, of paralysing with a touch 

 the victims they may grasp, so that, should the victim 

 escape from their grasp, it is only to die presently from 

 the fatal touch ? The power of fascination possessed 

 by some animals, of j^oisoning possessed by others, of 

 electrical discharges possessed by others, naturally lead 

 men to interpret certain observations made on the 

 Polypes, as proofs that they, too, possess some such 

 power: and this suggestion gains a more ready cre- 

 dence from the tendency in most minds to welcome 

 every unexplained phenomenon as indicating an occult 

 cause. This mtch-like power of fascination, — this power 

 of paralysing with a touch, appeals to our imagination, 

 and gains easy access to belief. But the spirit of sci- 

 entific scepticism forces me to declare that, as far as 

 my observations and experiments extend, there is no- 

 thing like evidence in favour of this power, much 

 evidence against it. Some Anemones certainly appear 

 to sting — as some jellyfish sting — although the major- 

 ity have no such effect upon om* hands, which every one 



