THE POISON OF THE MURRY 



rock and rub it in my hands, I feel a stinging pain at 

 once, and there appears on my skin a broad patch 

 reddened by the inflammation that is setting in. 

 The symptoms, which vary according to the individual, 

 according to the tenderness of his skin, take a long 

 time to abate. The poisoning capacity, possessed by 

 this creature of such an elementary structure, so far 

 down the scale in the classification of the animal 

 kingdom, is something real, apparent, relatively im- 

 portant. But the actual poisoning mechanism differs 

 from that of higher animals. Instead of consisting of 

 relatively large organs, such as teeth or stings, confined 

 to definite parts of the body, it is scattered about in 

 tiny microscopic cells distributed over the surface of 

 the whole body. 



Each of these cells — and the animal contains 

 thousands of them — consists of a vesicle filled with a 

 liquid in which is a filament rolled in a spiral round 

 itself, whence its scientific name nematocyst^ which 

 comes from the Greek and means " thread-cell ". 

 When I look at the parts which contain them under 

 the microscope, on a fragment specially prepared, I 

 see hosts of them, scattered about, all alike. Their 

 liquid is a poison, their filament a sting intended to 

 inject it by making a wound. If I touch the part 

 containing them, the tiny walls of these vesicles break 

 down and expel their contents, and the filament, 

 suddenly unwound like a spring, jumps out after 

 the fashion of a tiny catapult. Since it was my hand 

 that caused the contact, these filaments, which end 

 in a point, entered my skin, carried along with them 

 little drops of the poisonous liquid, and the result 

 was the rash from which I suffer. The apparatus is 

 minute: the naked eye cannot see it, but the number 

 of such mechanisms makes up for their tiny size. 



Some of the sea-anemones are still better armed. 

 They contain thread-cells, not only in the external 

 portions of their bodies, but also in the internal parts, 



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