ACALEPIIS IN GENERAL. 



Part I. 



all that is said al)oiit Acalopluv ami Kni(la\ it Avoiild seem as if the name of Knida) 

 applied more partieiilarl)' to Medusa\ as these are the only ones of Avhirli he seems 

 to have known that they possessed Inirning properties, the nature of which could 

 not have heen very clearly understood by him, for he says, when speaking of the 

 Sea Scolopcndra (prol)al)ly some Nereis), that it does not l)ite with the mouth, luit pro- 

 duces with the whole liody a painful sensation like that caused l:>y the Knide. The 

 description he gives of the Acaleplia3 applies particularly well to the Actiniae, and Ijut 

 for the statement that they free themselves could not lie ajiplied to any Medusa. Of 

 the Pneumon, he only states, that they are formed out of themselves. 



Neither Pliny ^ nor Aelian nor Oppian nor Galenus, nor the writers of the middle 



all ; anil, suflTLTing from the heat, they retire further 

 among tlic meks." In Book MIL Chap. I. Sec. .'l, 

 when, .speaking of the intensity of life ami its 

 gradations, he considers the marine shells and tlie 

 Aseidians as intermediate betwi'en tlie higlirr ani- 

 mals and i)lants. "The transition from them to tlie 

 animals is uninterruiited, as has been said before ; 

 as to some of Ihdse in the sea, one might dnubt 

 whether tliry arr animals or jilants, for Uwy are 

 attached, and many of tliem, wlicn separated, are 

 destroyed. In some, the natures of the body is 

 fleshy, as in the so-called Tethya (our Aseidians) 

 and the gcnns of the Acaleplue. The sponge, how- 

 ever," he adds, " is entirely like the plants " : and in 

 Chap. III. Sec. 3, he says that '• the Araleidue liv.> 

 iipim whatever small fishes fall in their way, and 

 tliat thi'y liave the mouth in the middle, whicli is 

 must e\ident in the largest ones. They have also, 

 like (lie oyster, an opening wdiere tlie fo(id ]iasses 

 out, and this is ujiward. In a general way the 

 Aealeph:e resemlile th(; intei'nal tlesliy part of tlie 

 oyster, ami it uses tlie roek as a shell."' 



The name Knide occurs twice. First, in liciok 

 V. Ch.-ip. XIV. Sec. 1, where it says that "tlie 

 Knida' and llie S|i(inges, whicdi are found in the 

 clefts (if the rocks, though without a slieli. miilti|dy 

 in the same way as the sludl iishes. Tliere are, 

 however, two geiiei-a of Knidie : one in the hdllnws, 

 wdiich never frees its(df from the nicks; ami aiiothi'r, 

 living npon flat, smootli Iiottoni, whicli detaelies itself 

 and moves from place to place." And in ]>ook IX. 

 t'liaji. XXV. Sec. 4, when speaking of the sea- 

 snakes, he says of the Sca Scolopcndra (our Nereis), 



tliat "when it has swallowed the hook, it turns itself 

 inside out until it expels the hook, and then turns 

 itself back again ; it does not bite with the month, 

 but its whole body ]iroduces a painful si;nsalion, like 

 that of the Kni(hc." 



The name Pneumon occurs but once (Book V. 

 Chap. XIII. Sec. 10), when, speaking of the repro- 

 duction and growth of animals, he only .says that the 

 so-called Pmanuon " is formed from itself," meaning 

 that it is sjiontaneously generated. From this 

 passage it ccadd hardly be inferred that Aristotle 

 designated an Acalejihe uiclei- the name of I'neu- 

 nion. Put when we con-ider bow the Cirecian 

 colonies were scattered along the shores of the 

 JMcditcrram'nn, and that the name Piilmo INIai'inus 

 was early ap|ilied to the large Phizostoma of the 

 Mediterranean, and even figured under tliat name 

 by IMathioli ; that the Phizostoma may ajitly be 

 compared to a tloating lung : and further, that 

 this largest ISIedusa, of the Mediterranean is com- 

 monly calleil Poiiinon de ]\[er liy the French fisher- 

 men, — the conclusion is irresistible, that, if the- Latin 

 and French names are not a translation of tlie (Jreek 

 " Pneumon," this name is likely to have been given 

 to that large ^lediisa for the s.aine reason for which 

 the French call it sea-lung. It is singular, however, 

 that Ilondelet, who first represented the Phizosto- 

 ma. should have failed to recognize it as the Pmai- 

 nion of the Greeks, and apjilicd the name to a 

 com]ioiind Ascidian. 



1 The best edition of the Natural History of 

 I'liny is that jiublished in Paris in 1828 by Lemaire, 

 under the suiicrvision of Ajasson de Cirandsagne : 



