THE " STANGER " JELLY-FISH. 373 



one, endured the most lancinating pain at the time, and for 

 hours afterwards a hot, burning, fevered skin, and a heavy, 

 dull ache, accompanied by throbbings of the brain so violent 

 that it appeared as if the head would burst asunder at every 

 heart-beat. 



The fact of this inequality has been throughout life a valuable 

 lesson to me, i.e. that a punishment which will nearly, if not 

 quite, kill one man, will be no punishment at all to another. 



Of course I cannot answer for the effects of these very minute 

 cnidae upon others, but I can state that they nearly killed me, 

 and that if I had been forced to swim another hundred yards, 

 I should have collapsed, sunk, and had a coroner's jury return 

 a verdict of " Found drowned in consequence of cramp." 



On me the effects were as follows : First a slight, and then 

 a severe, tingling on the parts which had been struck. Then 

 sharp, darting pangs. Then a sudden shock as if a bullet had 

 passed through the breast from one side to the other. Conse- 

 quent collapse, and suspension of the office of both heart and 

 lungs. I once had to walk nearly two miles after being stung 

 by one of these dread animals, and how often I fell before 

 reaching my lodgings I dare not say, but certainly once in 

 every two hundred yards. 



Even after partial recovery I should not have known my 

 own face. It was that of an old and wearied man of seventy, 

 grey, wrinkled, and withered; and many months elapsed 

 before I felt myself sure that the weird-like bullet would not 

 drive through my breast, and leave me lying on the ground 

 gasping and speechless. 



These dreaded tentacles can sting as fiercely when separated 

 from the animal as when they are conjoined to it, as I can also 

 testify from personal experience. 



I have a natural alacrity in damaging myself, and there is 

 scarcely a representative bone in the body that I have not 

 fractured or dislocated, or both. Fortunately the cerebral 

 vertebrae have hitherto escaped. I have broken the right leg, 

 right arm, two ribs, and right collar-bone ; dislocated the right 

 ankle, and smashed nearly every bone of the right hand. At 

 present, the damage to the left side is restricted to two ribs ; 

 and I hope that the Genius of Ossifraction may now be content 

 with his work. 



