Chap. I. 



HISTORY OF THE ACALEPHS. 



The earliest accounts extant, relating to Acaleplis, are contained in a few passages 

 of tlie History of Animals by Aristotle ; Ijut these are very meagre, and show that 

 the great Greek philosopher had no very clear idea either of their affinities or of 

 their structure.^ He speaks of them under three names ; calling them, in some of his 

 passages, Acalepha?, in others, Knid«, and in another, Pneumones. A careful com- 

 parison of all the passages in which these animals are mentioned, shows that the 

 names of Acalephoe and Knidae were probably applied to Actiniae and to Medusae 

 indiscriminately, and that Aristotle himself did not distinguish these animals accu- 

 rately, or, at least, did not know in what their essential differences consist, for, speak- 

 ing of Acalephte as well as of Knid», he only says that there are two kinds, one of 

 which is attached to the rocks, while the other may free itself and seek its food 

 by night; which seems to indicate that he believed the free Medusa? to be at times 

 attached like the Actiniae, and capaljle of freeing themselves at wUl, or that the 

 Actinia?, freeing themselves, become Medusa?.^ Taking into consideration, however. 



^ The best edition of the Zoological works of 

 Aristotle is that of lo. Gottlob Schneider; Aris- 

 totelis de Animalibus Historian Lib. X., Gra^ce and 

 Latinc, Lipsi;\!, 1811, 4 vols. 8vo. The best trans- 

 lation is that of De. Vr. Strack into German : 

 Aristoteles Naturgeschichte der Thiere iibesetzt und 

 niit Anmerkungen begleitet, Frankfurt am Main, 

 181 G, 1 vol. 8vo. The French translation by Camus, 

 Paris, 1783, 2 vols. 4to., is less accurate. There 

 is no good English translation. 



^ As the account which Lesson gives of the 

 views of Aristotle relating to Medusa^ in his Histoire 

 Natiirelle des Zoophytes: AcaUphes, Paris, 1843, is 

 far from accurate, I deem it necessary to introduce 

 here a literal translation of all the passages of the 

 original text relating to that subject. 



The name Acalephe appears in six different pas- 

 sages in Aristotle. First, in Book I. Chap. I. Sec. 

 6, when, speaking of the habits and functions of 

 animals, he says, that " there are some which get 

 their food in the water, and are unable to live out of 

 it ; they do not, however, take in either air or water, 

 as the Acalephe and the Ostrea." Next, in Sec. 8, 

 speaking of the ability of animals to change their 

 place, he says, " some both attach and detach them- 

 selves, as a genus of the so-called Acalcphie, for 

 some of these, detaching themselves by night, go 



about to feed." In Book IV. Chap. VI. Sec. 4 and 

 5, when speaking of the structure of the marine 

 animals, he mentions that '• there is also the genus 

 of the AcalephK, which is peculiar ; they cling to 

 tlie rocks, like some of the shell fishes, but occasion- 

 ally free themselves. They have no shell, but their 

 whole body is fleshy, and they feel, and seize the 

 hand approaching them, and then hold it, as the 

 Polypus " (which is the Octapus of modern system- 

 atic writers) " does with its feelers, in such a manner 

 as to cause the flesh to swell. They have the mouth 

 in the middle, and live from tlie rocks as from a 

 sliell " (which probably means that the rocks afford 

 them the same protection as the shell gives to the 

 oyster). "If any one of the small fishes falls in their 

 way, they hold to it, as to the hand ; so also if any 

 thing eatable falls in their way, they devour it, and 

 one genus frees itself and feeds upon scallops and 

 sea-urchins, whenever any thing falls in its way. 

 They seem to have no visible excrements, but in this 

 they resemble the plants. There are two genera of 

 Acalepha^, one of which is smaller and more eatable, 

 the other large and hard, like those found about 

 Chalcis. During the winter their flesh is firm, 

 wherefore they are caught, and are eatable ; during 

 sunuuer they perisli, for they become soft, and, if 

 touched, are easily torn, and cannot be taken off at 



