372 NATURE'S TEACHINGS. 



these cells is to capture and kill the prey, and the mode of 

 doing so is very remarkable. 



On the right and left of the illustration are two such 

 bodies, in which is seen a sort of elastic wire coiled spirally, 

 apparently without regularity, but really possessing a most 

 beautiful order. That on the left is the poison-cell of a Madre- 

 pore, and the other is the same organ in a Corynactis. No 

 sooner is the tentacle touched than the poison-cells are mecha- 

 nically acted upon. They are turned inside out, and the 

 coiled spring darts forth with wonderful violence. 



Slight as is the dart, so fine that it cannot be seen except 

 with the aid of a tolerably powerful microscope, it is a terrible 

 weapon. Although it is projected with sufficient force to bury 

 itself to its base even through so tough an object as the 

 human skin, it could inflict but little injury, and would, indeed, 

 scarcely be felt. But it carries with it a most irritant poison, 

 which is apparently contained in the little capsule. These 

 cnidae are very plentiful in the tentacles of the Stinging Jelly- 

 fish, or Stanger, as it is often called, and are charged with a 

 terrible poison. 



As is the case with all such poisons, its effects differ accord- 

 ing to the constitution of the being that is poisoned. There 

 are some persons, for example, who care no more for the sting 

 of a bee than for the prick of a needle, and there are those 

 whom a single bee- sting will bring almost to the gates of 

 death. So with the tentacles of the Stinging Jelly-fish and 

 those of the Portuguese Man-of-war, and there are persons who 

 are scarcely affected with the sting of the scorpion. 



So it is with nettles. "When I was a boy at school it was 

 thought necessary to wear an oak-leaf, or at least a portion of 

 an oak-leaf, on the 29th of May, and all who did not possess 

 this talisman might be flogged with nettles by those who did. 

 As the school was situated in the north of England, where the 

 oak puts forth its leaves late in the season, it was no easy 

 matter to obtain a veritable oak-leaf, and we used to take any 

 leaf that we could procure, and cut it round the edges into 

 the similitude of a suitable oak-leaf. 



1 The effect of the nettles upon the boys was most curiously 

 diversified. Some cared nothing whatever for them ; others 

 suffered sharp but brief pangs ; while others, of whom I was 



