4 Flint's nattjeal histoet. [Book XXXll. 



anotlier name whicli it bears, ''odinolytes."^* Be all this as 

 it may, considering this most remarkable fact of a ship being 

 thus stopped in its course, who can entertain a doubt as to the 

 possibility of any manifestation of her power by I^ature, or 

 as to the effectual operation of the remedies which she has 

 centred in her spontaneous productions ? 



CHAP. 2. THE TOEPEDO : NINE EEMEDIES. 



And then, besides, even if we had not this illustration by 

 the agency of the echene'is, would it not have been quite suf- 

 ficient only to cite the instance of the torpedo, ^^ another in- 

 habitant also of the sea, as a manifestation of the mighty 

 powers of Nature ? From a considerable distance even, and if 

 only touched with the end of a spear or staff, this fish has the 

 property of benumbiog even the most vigorous arm, and of 

 rivetting the feet of the runner, however swift he may be in 

 the race. If, upon considering this fresh illustration, we find 

 ourselves compelled to admit that there is in existence a certain 

 power which, by the very exhalations^® and, as it were, emana- 

 tions therefrom, is enabled to affect the members of the hu- 

 man body,^^ what are we not to hope for from the remedial 

 influences which Nature has centred in all animated beings ? 



CHAP. 3. THE SEA HAEE : FIVE REMEDIES. 



No less wonderful, too, are the particulars which we find 

 stated relative to the sea-hare.^® Taken with the food or 

 drink, it is a poison to some persons ; while to others, again, 

 the very sight of it is venomous. ^^ Indeed, if a woman in a 



^* From \veiv rag w^tj/af, " to release from tlie pains of childbirth." 



15 See B. ix. c. 67. 



16 Ajasson remarks that it was owing probably to this opinion that it 

 was formerly the belief, that by holding the breath a person could render 

 himself proof against the shock of the torpedo ; a precaution recommended 

 by Kaerapfer, in his " Amenitates Exoticse," p, 514. Ed. 1712. 



I'' " Quadam aura sui corporis adficiat membra" seems a preferable 

 reading to *' Quadam aura corporis sui adficiat membra," as given by the 

 Bamberg MS., and adopted by Sillig. 



18 See B. ix. c. 72, and the Note. 



19 A fabulous story, Ajasson remarks, but one that was commonly be- 

 lieved in the 16th and 17th centuries. Gessner, however, a conscientious 

 enquirer into the mysteries of Nature, asserts {de Aqiiatilibus, p. 563) that, 

 to his own knowledge, the sight of this fish was productive of the symp- 

 toms here mentioned. Beckmann reckons the Aplysia depilans (with which 



