156 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



When we know, on the one hand, that the Jellyfish 

 stings, and when, on the other hand, we know that it 

 is furnished with numerous capsules, in which are 

 coiled threads, to be seen darting out when pressed, the 

 idea of connecting the stinging with these threads is 

 inevitable ; but this is not enough for Science : it is 

 only a preparatory guess, which ])^^oves nothing ; it 

 may be right, it may be wrong. I believe it is alto- 

 gether wrong. We have already seen how erroneous 

 was the supposition that Polypes paralysed their vic- 

 tims with a touch, and that poison was secreted by 

 their tentacles ; yet for this supposition there was at 

 least the evidence of partial observation, whereas, for 

 the suj)position we have now to consider, there is abso- 

 lutely no evidence at all. 



On a survey of the places where these " urticating 

 cells" are present, we stumble upon an unlucky fact, 

 and one in itself enough to excite suspicion. They are 

 present in a few Jellyfish — which urticate ; in Actiniae 

 ■ — which urticate ; and in all Polypes — which, if they 

 do not urticate, are popularly supposed to do so, and at 

 any rate possess some peculiar power of adhesion. In 

 all these cases, organ and function may be said to go 

 together. But the cells are also present in the majority 

 of Jellyfish, which do not urticate ; in Eolids — which 

 do not urticate ; and in Planariae — which do not urti- 

 cate. Here, then, we have the organ, without any 

 corresponding function ; " urticatiug cells," but no ur- 

 tication ! The cautious mind of Owen had already 

 warned us that there was something not quite satisfac- 



