226 JELLY-FISH, STAR-FISH, AND SEA-URCHINS. 
passive, except that every now and then one part 
or another of the margin is suddenly contracted in 
a semilunar form. By-and-by, however, even these 
vecasional twitches cease, and the animal is now 
insensible to all kinds of stimulation. Recovery in 
normal water is gradual, and marked in its first 
stage by the occasional retractions of the margin 
last mentioned. At about this stage also, or some- 
times slightly later, the animal first becomes respon- 
sive to stimulation; and it is interesting to note 
that the response is performed, not by giving a 
general spasm as would the unpoisoned animal, but 
by folding in the part irritated—an action which 
very much resembles, on the one hand, the spon- 
taneous convulsive movements just described, and, 
on the other, the response which is given to stimu- 
lation by the unpoisoned bell when gently irritated 
after removal of its margin. After these stages 
there supervenes a prolonged period of quiescence, 
during which the animal remains normally respon- 
sive to stimulation. Spontaneity may not return 
for several hours, and, after it does return, the 
animal is in most cases permanently enfeebled. 
Indeed, on all the species of Medusze, nicotin, both 
during its action and in its subsequent effects, is 
the most deadly of all the poisons I have tried. 
9. Morphia.—The aneesthesiating effects of mor- 
phia are as decided as are those of chloroform. I shall 
confine myself to describing the process of anzesthe- 
siation in the case of Aurelia aurita in an extract 
from my notes. “A very vigorous specimen, having 
twelve lithocysts, was placed in a strong sea-water 
