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ut ON ANIMAL LIFE 83 
electric battery of certain Hels, of the Electric 
Cat Fish, and the Torpedoes, one of which is 
said to. be able to discharge an amount of 
electricity sufficient to kill a Man. 
Some of the Meduse and other Zoophytes 
are armed by millions of minute organs 
known as “thread cells.” Hach consists of a 
cell, within which a firm, elastic thread is 
tightly coiled. The moment the Medusa 
touches its prey the cells burst and the 
threads spring out. Entermg the flesh as 
they do by myriads, they prove very ettfective 
weapons. 
The ink of the Sepia has passed into a proverb. 
The animal possesses a store of dark fluid, 
which, if attacked, it at once ejects, and thus 
escapes under cover of the cloud thus created. 
The so-called Bombardier Beetles, when at- 
tacked, discharge at the enemy, from the 
hinder part of their body, an acrid fluid which, 
as soon as it comes in contact with air, ex- 
plodes with a sound resembling a miniature 
gun. Westwood mentions, on the authority 
of Burchell, that on one occasion, “ whilst 
resting for the night on the banks of one of 
