166 
ANTHEAD^. 
embrace, in less than five minutes after its capture. But — 
de eo actum est ! it was all up with the poor Eel ; its eyes 
were already dimmed in death, and it lay in my hand 
flaccid and helpless, with only a momentary convulsion or 
two ; — the fatal cnidce of the tentacles had done their 
work : and when I restored it to the offended gourmand, it 
was speedily lost to view, coiled up in the capacious maw. 
Numerous witnesses vouch for the fact, — though others, 
myself included, are insensible to it, — that the contact of 
AntJiea'B tentacles has a perceptible morbific power on the 
human skin. One of the most distinct statements of the 
fact that I have met with is contained in the following 
communication, for which I am indebted to Miss Pinchard, 
an accomplished naturalist of Torquay : — 
“I have myself been repeatedly so affected by their 
clinging to the back of my hand as to have the skin 
mottled, and so tender as to induce me to refrain from 
willingly coming in contact with them. On one occasion 
the whole of the back of the hand and fingers was covered 
with white blisters, as if I had thrust it into a bed of 
nettles, and nearly as painful. The affection did not last 
above an hour or two, and only occurred when the AntJieas 
had become flaccid and feeble, as they often do after a 
short captivity. I have never found any effect arise from 
handling them when they were in an active and healthy 
state.” 
Mr. Dana attributes to the kindred species, A. fiagelli- 
fera, a power of making its terrors known even at a 
distance. “ Having a number of Monodontas [a genus of 
univalve Mollusca allied to our Trochi] too much crowded 
in a large jar of water, I took out half-a-dozen and placed 
them in a jar with the Actinia. On looking at them about 
three hours after, I found that, instead of climbing like the 
others to the top of the water, they remained just where 
