266 M. G. Lunel on Commensalism of a 
introduced itself through an aperture which is alinost always 
gaping, and which offers but little resistance. ; 
According to Lesson * the prey of the Medusee consists of 
small fishes &e., which they stupefy by a liquid which is 
caustic as regards this prey, but which often has no action 
upon man, although certain species are truly urticant when 
touched. The same author says that he had often seen the 
flesh of tolerably robust fishes absorbed by the parts of the 
Medusa which pressed against the scales, displacing them, 
and by their contact decomposing the fleshy matter mto a 
sort of rosy sirupous liquid. Lastly this author adds that the 
wide inferior apertures to which Péron gave the name of 
cavités stomacales, while Lamarck, Cuvier, and De Blainviile 
called them mouths, serve the Meduse to swallow their 
prey. 
In 1848, being on the beach of Maguelonne, near Mont- 
pellier, at the moment when the fishermen had brought in 
their net with several large Rhizostomes, I observed in the 
interior of one of these Medusz a fish nearly as long as my 
finger, which still showed some signs of life and was in a per- 
fect state of preservation. I could not, however, recognize 
the species, nor can I say in what cavity of the Medusa the 
fish was lodged. I may add that the fishermen greatly dread 
the corrosive action of the Medusee upon their nets. 
The Meduse are not edible, and only serve as food to the 
Actinie, which seize them in passing by means of their ten- 
tacles. Whales are said to consume the small species in 
great quantities, engulfing them in their enormous mouths 
with other animals of different types which abound in the seas 
frequented by these great Cetaceans. 
Fishes have sometimes been observed swimming around 
Meduse and apparently pursuing them, which has led to the 
belief that these Vertebrata followed the Meduse in order to 
feed upon them. Professor Cocco t was the first to make 
known a Mediterranean fish which, towards the end of the 
year 1834, appeared wheeling round a quantity of Medusa, 
which in that year swarmed in the neighbourhood of Messina. 
The fact was inquired into soon afterwards by the same pro- 
fessor, who, from further observations, thought himself justi- 
fied in giving this fish the specific name of medusophagus, or 
eater of Medusc, on account of the avidity which it showed, 
according to him, in feeding upon the filiform tentacles of 
these Sea-Nettles, and the generic name of Schedophilus, 
which signifies lover of the shade. Headds that some Sicilian 
* Hist. Nat.des Zoophytes Acaléphes, 1843, p. 162. 
+ Giorn. Innom. Mess. ann, iii. no. 7, p. 59. 
