BEGINNING OF NERVES. 319 



they cease altogether, the animals remaining at the bottom of the water, 

 apparently quite dead. No form or degree of stimulation will now elicit 

 the slightest response ; and this fact, it must be remembered, is quite as 

 remarkable in the case of the Jlediisw as in that of any other animal. 

 Recovery in normal sea-water is exceedingly rapid, especially in the 

 case of chloroform and ether. 



The effects of strychnia may be best observed on a species called 

 Gyancea capillata., from the fact that, in water kept at a constant tem- 

 perature, the ordinary swimming motions of this animal are as regular 

 and sustained as the beating of a heart. But soon after the water has 

 been poisoned with strychnia, unmistakable signs of irregularity in the 

 swimming motions begin to show themselves. Gradually these signs 

 of irregularity become more and more pronounced, until at last they de- 

 velop into well-marked convulsions. The convulsions show themselves 

 in the form of extreme deviations from the natural rhythm of this ani- 

 mal's motion. Instead of the heart-like regularity with which systole 

 and diastole follow one another in the unpoisoned animal, we may now 

 observe prolonged periods of violent contraction, amounting in fact to 

 tonic spasm ; and even when this sj^asm is momentarily relieved, the 

 relaxation has no time to assert itself properly before another spasm 

 supervenes. Moreover, these convulsions are very plainly of a iKirox- 

 ysmal nature ; for after they have lasted from five to ten minutes, a 

 short period of absolute repose comes on, during which the jelly-fish 

 expands to its full dimensions, falls to the bottom of the water in which 

 it is contained, and looks in every way like a dead animal. Very soon, 

 however, another paroxysm sets in, and so on — prolonged periods of 

 convulsion alternating with shorter periods of repose for several hours, 

 until finally death puts an end to all these symptoms so characteristic 

 of strychnine-poisoning in the higher animals. 



Similarly, without going into tedious details, I may say in general 

 terms that I have tried caffein, nitrite of anyl, nicotin, veratrium, digi- 

 talin, atropin, curare, cyanide of potassium, alcohol, as well as other 

 poisons ; and almost without any exception I find them to produce the 

 same effects on the JledusoB as they severally produce on the higher 

 animals. The case of alcohol is particularly interesting, not only be- 

 cause an intoxicated jelly-fish is a ludicrous object to observe, but also 

 because the experiments with alcohol show how precisely the specific 

 gravity of the Mednsm is adjusted to that of the sea-water. For if, 

 after a jelly-fish has become tolerably well drunk by immersion in a 

 mixture of alcohol-and-water, it is transferred to normal sea-water, the 

 exceedingly small amount of alcohol which it has imbibed is sufficient 

 to make the animal remain permanently floating at the surface of the 

 water until it again gets rid of the alcohol by osmosis. 



As my space is now at an end, I must postpone for the present my 

 account of a number of other experiments which, in point of interest, 

 though not in point of systematic arrangement, have a better claim to 



